Caroline Shaw: The Wheel

Caroline Shaw’s compositions invite audiences to slow down and tune in to what appears at first to be music made from simple melodies and chord patterns, but which reveals rich layers of meaning with each hearing. Shape-shifting French ensemble I Giardini intensifies the deep listening experience with tenderhearted performances of six pieces for one to five players. *The Wheel* (2021), most recent among them, and *Boris Kerner* for the delightful combination of cello and flowerpots, unfold like conversations between old friends, filled with past memories, urgent interjections, and meandering digressions. In *Gustave Le Gray*, Shaw frames Chopin’s enchanting *Mazurka in A Minor*, played with great sensitivity by David Violi, and gradually transforms it with haunting block chords, while Pauline Buet’s solo cello catches the melancholy of the Tallis-inspired *In manus tuas*.

Composer Caroline Shaw is gaining massive amounts of attention both within her native U.S. (she toured, believe it or not, with Kanye West) and beyond; here, her music appears on the Alpha label, performed by the instrumental duo I Giardini and other musicians.