Solo Saxophone
| Esa Pietilä Solo Saxophone | |
| August 9, 2026 | |
| 18:00 | |
| Rauma, Finland | |
| Rauma Festivo - Rauma Holy Cross Church |
“TIMELESS BACH AND FREE SOUNDS”
At Rauma Festivo
Saxophonist and composer Esa Pietilä, expands the expressive boundaries of the solo saxophone. Internationally acclaimed, Pietilä moves fluidly between contemporary music, improvisation, and jazz -these worlds meet in an intense and highly distinctive musical whole.
The six works of the concert create an interesting compound of old and new music. Seemengly distant musical elements create a touching and magical world. Three pieces from Pietilä´s new solo album Defiance: Sphere, Colors of Liberation & Defiance, and improvisations on J.S BACH famous Chaconne, plus improvisations from BACH Menuet & Gigue from Cello Sonata N0 1. Each piece opens its own sonic landscape — rounded spaces of resonance, flowing waves, mist-like textures, and bright crystalline sonorities. The music moves from quiet and fragile moments to powerful outbursts in which the saxophone sounds both delicate and deeply physical at the same time.
The title piece of the new album, Defiance, crystallizes the spirit of the album: uncompromising, exploratory, and boundary-challenging. For Pietilä, the saxophone is not merely an instrument, but a resonating body through which sound, breath, and space form a constantly evolving entity.
Pietilä’s long-term exploration of the possibilities of the saxophone as a solo instrument invites the listener on a sonic journey where every breath, resonance, and silence opens a new perspective into the world of sound.