The Strange Highway
“There’s an uncompromising beauty to these works by the Iranian-born American composer. The opening title work, [The Strange Highway], for cello octet, is a wild, rhythmic ride, while the closing Metamorphosis of Narcissus offers some fantastic musical storytelling. Impressive.”
—BBC Music Magazine
Gity Razaz’s debut album “The Strange Highway” was released on August 5, 2022 by BIS Records. The New York Times describes Razaz’s work as “ravishing and engulfing,” and this album features music she has composed over the last fifteen years recorded by cellist Inbal Segev, All-American Cello Band from Cello Biennale Amsterdam, violinist Francesca dePasquale and pianist Scott Cuellar, violist Katharina Kang Litton, and Metropolis Ensemble conducted by Andrew Cyr.
Razaz, who was born in Tehran, Iran in 1986 and now lives in New York, is a composer whose music is deeply influenced by the constantly changing, at times tumultuous, realities of the world, including her identity and personal journey as an immigrant. This process of what Razaz describes as “uprooting and rebuilding” occupies much of her work, resulting in music that is emotionally charged and dramatic, while still maintaining mystery and lyricism. Her compositions are her means of responding to a hyperactive, disconnected world and offering transformation to listeners.
The centerpiece of Razaz's debut album is her dramatic and darkly exquisite writing for strings, most notably the cello as exemplified in Legend of Sigh, commissioned and recorded by Inbal Segev.
Album Reviews:
“There’s an uncompromising beauty to these works by the Iranian-born American composer. The opening title work, [The Strange Highway], for cello octet, is a wild, rhythmic ride, while the closing Metamorphosis of Narcissus offers some fantastic musical storytelling. Impressive.”
—BBC Music Magazine“Four out of the five pieces [on this CD] strike mc as being among the most intellectually satisfying and emotionally thrilling 21st-century music I’ve heard. It is all vigorous. tightly written, and deeply serious.”
—Fanfare“…track after track of stark beauty, composer Gity Razaz showcases her impressive command of string instrument writing and takes us on a journey into cavernous spaces filled with unearthly sonorities and evocative, immersive story-telling.”
—I Care if You Listen“The Strange Highway, a driving and energetically charged piece for cello octet [is] the highlight of the programme.”
—Gramophone“And the piece that repays attention the most is Legend of Sigh, a 19-minute tone poem for live cello, prerecorded cello, and electronics that instantly entices the ear and doesn’t let go…we are instantly thrust into a phantasmagoric world from the first notes— Segev’s singing cello surrounded by a glowing halo of digital electronic sound, occasionally joined by prerecorded cello.…This is the pick of Razaz’s crop on the album, and it holds up over repeated hearings.”
—San Francisco Classical Voice“ …a slow segment, one that is quite lyrical and beautiful, gathering steam and lusciousness until self-infatuated Narcissus disappears into the void.”
—San Francisco Classical Voice