We are alienated from our work, from nature, and from those around us and the result is often a sense of isolation. Isolation explores emotions that comprise this isolation: starting with a lonely saxophone solo in the saxophone which is punctuated with echoes in the piano, then moving into a duet pervaded with an uneasy feeling of longing. This is followed by a brief surge of resentment that just barely fails to boil over into anger. The mood suddenly returns to longing before the piece ends with the opening phrase of the initial lonely solo, this time the piano fails to echo the gesture, which is instead repeated by the saxophone.

Don-Paul Kahl, baritone saxophone, Xiangyu Zhao, piano

Isolation for E flat Saxophone and Piano

Alec J. Radecki