Sikorski
A melancholy cantilena by the soprano saxophone opens the one-movement composition, only to be subordinated to the ensemble movement in extraordinarily interesting colour mixtures. Dazzling, episodic passages with unstable time structures are juxtaposed with canonical layers of chords, whereby the alto saxophone is given another long soloistic task shortly before the end as a counterpart to the opening solo. The title ‘Far away’ is both programmatic and symbolic. ‘Going away’ or ‘being far away’ stands like a poetic motto over the moving and expressive course of the short movement, which illuminates the tonal diversity of the saxophone family to the very end. Elena Firsova: ‘I wrote the work Far away in the spring of 1991, shortly after my arrival from Moscow, when I felt very far from home, far from friends and neighbours.’ (Elena Firsova)