Cellist Inbal Segev’s inspirational commissioning project, 20 for 2020, originally released as four digital EPs, brings all 20 compositions together in a 2-album deluxe digipack, capped by the premiere of Inbal’s own work, Behold for cello quartet. The convergence of cataclysmic events of 2020 spurred cellist Inbal Segev to conceive an ambitious and inspirational commissioning project, 20 for 2020, for which she asked 20 composers to document in music their responses to the challenges posed by the pandemic and social unrest. The result is an utterly moving and immensely varied palette of strong and distinctive compositional voices spanning a range of ages, genders and cultures. Originally released over time as four digital EPs, all 20 compositions come together for the first time in a 2-album deluxe digipack, and are capped by the premiere of Inbal’s own work, Behold for cello quartet. When Inbal conceived 20 for 2020, she could not have foreseen the scope of musical imagination from the 20 composers she asked to write works for her. Further pronouncing her passion for promoting new works for her instrument: “Art needs to move forward, otherwise it will die.” Collectively these compositions celebrate a stunning array of music for the soulful sound of the cello in the 21st century.

Gity Razaz was born in Tehran, where she spent her formative years before moving to the United States in 2002. Razaz’s identity as an immigrant is integral to her artistic work, in terms both of the subject matter that attracts her and the musical structures she employs. The relationship between the grounded and the ephemeral inhabits much of her music: her choice of titles reveals a poetic sensibility, but her music is never purely cerebral. Instead it is often anchored by the visceral, as with the punchy rhythms and earthy colours of The Strange Highway for cello octet. That piece, which has given name to the album, takes its inspiration from a poem by the Chilean author Roberto Bolaño. Two other works on the disc also have extra-musical roots: Legend of Sigh is a retelling in music of an Azerbaijani folktale while Metamorphosis of Narcissus was inspired by the famous painting by Salvador Dalí. In both these works Razaz embraces electro-acoustic techniques as a means of enhancing her palette.

The five works on the disc were composed between 2007 and 2020, with the earliest piece being Duo for violin and piano. The latest work is Spellbound, a solo for viola inspired by the mournful sound quality of Persian instruments such as the ney and kamanche.