Across Shakespeare’s Jesters’ 9-minute duration, the composition unfolds a labyrinth of musical interrelationships and connections that showcase the musicians in a virtuosic display of rhythmic agility, counterpoint, skill, energy, dynamic range, timbre, clarity, and majesty. Throughout the kaleidoscopic journey, the work passes through many lively and colorful episodes, never losing its sense of dance, caprice, and effervescence. Shakespeare’s Jesters’falls loosely into three arcs played without a pause. The opening three minutes is an exposition of animated materials with rhythmic vitality featuring contrapuntal hockets that ping-pong between players. Following are three contrapuntal phrases (lasting respectively 60, 120, and 90 seconds) throughout which the musical ingredients are further transformed and elaborated. The final 120 seconds, a mischievous caper. © Augusta Read Thomas