The annual Wind Serenade concert begins at 7:30 p.m., Monday, Nov. 16 in the APSU Music/Mass Communication Concert Hall, it features a dazzling transcription of Rossini’s overture to Semiramide, Dvorak’s beautiful Serenade in D minor for winds as well as Richard Strauss’ virtuosic late symphony for winds, From an Invalid’s Workshop.
When a group of wind musicians approached Richard Strauss in the early 1940s about writing them some music, the German composer apparently created one of the “most difficult pieces ever written for wind instruments.”
The Sonatina in F, known informally as “From an Invalid’s Workshop,” is so challenging, professional orchestras and college wind ensembles typically stay away from it.
“It’s never played,” Gregory Wolynec, APSU professor of music, said. “I have it in my office. It’s a rental, and the last date the score was rented out was 1982.”
But then one night earlier this year, Wolynec and several friends huddled around a table at a nearby restaurant, discussing complicated wind arrangements. The group consisted of APSU faculty members and professional musicians from around the region, who, for the last year, have performed together as the Gateway Chamber Ensemble.
Their conversation that evening soon turned into a contest on who could find the most difficult wind piece available. When it was all over, they had committed themselves to performing a wind serenade concert at APSU featuring Strauss’ notorious “From an Invalid’s Workshop.”
“It’s ridiculously hard, and we’re going to do it on two rehearsals,” he said. “Not one member of the ensemble has ever played the piece. Not one member of the ensemble has ever heard the piece live.”
But this is nothing new for the group. For the last year, they have located difficult, rarely heard works, and after studying and rehearsing the music in their own time, the members come together to successfully present these pieces to the local community. And on Monday evening, the Strauss work will be one of three demanding compositions the audience will hear. The ensemble also intends to tackle an overture by Rossini and Dvorak’s Serenade in D minor for winds.
“It’s a program of three very challenging, but approachable works,” Wolynec said. “The great thing about the ensemble is everyone’s prepared, everyone shows up wanting to play literature they don’t get to play anywhere else and we put on a world-class performance.”
Monday’s concert offers Clarksville residents an opportunity to hear top musicians perform rarely heard masterworks. The show is free for APSU students, $8 for adults, $5 for students and senior citizens and $20 for a family of four. For more information, contact Wolynec at 221-7642 or wolynecg@apsu.edu.
