On paper, the idea of Bach’s Fourth Partita and Schumann’s Davidsbündlertänze bookending the recorded premiere of Caroline Shaw’s 14-minute Gustave Le Gray might seem bizarre. In reality, the programme concept is absolutely inspired, for each of these three works, though stylistically divergent, embodies wide contrasts of mood.

Since Shaw’s piece is new to disc, it makes sense to discuss it first. The composer sets off on her ‘multi-layered portrait’ of Chopin’s A minor Mazurka, Op 17 No 4, with soft repeated chords that eventually grow louder and more petulant. Chopin’s Mazurka rears its head at the 3'38" mark and, at around nine minutes, Chopin’s original harmonies commence a process of unhinging and the piece more or less ends the way it begins. Shaw wrote Gustave Le Gray for Amy Yang, who presumably plays it to the composer’s satisfaction, although wilder contrasts of tempo and dynamics might give the music a terser and edgier profile.

Surely the performance would have gained from the fervency and audacity that Yang brings to her Bach. The Ouverture’s introduction comes to vivid life through Yang’s coiled freedom and deft ornaments, and she charges through the central section like an unbridled puppy, albeit one who is paper-trained! Her lily-gilded Allemande would cause Rosalyn Tureck to turn in her grave, yet it made me smile. However, the breezy Courante borders on glib (the perfunctory up-beats are a giveaway), while little hesitations and holdbacks diffuse the Menuet’s basic pulse.

If anything, Yang’s freedom reaches epic proportions throughout the Schumann, yet it is undermined by the pianist’s comparable lack of tonal heft and sustaining power; at least that’s what the clear yet somewhat drab sonic image suggests. Still, the music readily absorbs Yang’s subjective touches, such as the endless pause following the first movement’s introductory measures, No 9’s fanciful fermatas, No 14’s feathery cantabile and No 17’s assiduous build to the end. Perhaps her big ideas translate into even bigger, juicier pianism live in concert; I’d love to find out. Yang, Shaw and composer/pianist Curt Cacioppo all contribute annotations that alternate between the poetic, the evocative and the just plain wackadoodle.