APSU’s Dimensions Series Explores Composer Enescu and his Chamber Symphony

Clarksville, TN – In 1958, the conductor Constantin Silvestri experienced a slight dilemma. He was set to premiere composer George Enescu’s last work, Chamber Symphony for 12 Players, but he worried the Romanian audience wouldn’t appreciate the complexities or the brilliance of the work.

“He was convinced the audience would not be able to grasp it on first hearing it, so he had it played twice,” Dr. Gregory Wolynec, associate professor of music at Austin Peay State University, said. “This last work of his, people who specialize in the music of this composer refer to it as the hardest to understand.”

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New CD by APSU’s Gateway Chamber Ensemble Lauded by National Music Magazine

Classical music aficionados were surprised last month when they picked up the latest issue of Fanfare Magazine and read that a chamber ensemble out of Clarksville had recorded the definitive version of Mozart’s “Wind Serenade in B flat” and Richard Strauss’s “Wind Serenade in E flat.” Music critic Jerry Dubins even said the recordings by this previously unknown group ranked above the performances by prominent ensembles from New York, London and around the world.

The Gateway Chamber Ensemble, which consists of Austin Peay State University faculty members and professional musicians from around the region, released its first CD, “Wind Serenades,” in March, and critics with Fanfare Magazine, one of the genre’s pre-eminent publications, immediately took note of the recording’s high quality.

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