nature

Through The Woods is the musical equivalent of stepping through a gate you didn’t notice before and finding yourself somewhere considerably more interesting than where you started. A full orchestral palette is deployed with great skill and restraint – pizzicato strings bounce along with cheerful energy whilst a gliding harp adds sweeping moments of genuine magic, and woodwind instruments dart about like the wood-nymphs and sparkly elves the piece evokes. Celesta and twinkly percussion scatter light across the texture, and the whole thing maintains a sense of wide-eyed wonder throughout that’s infectious without being childish. This is orchestral music that takes its subject seriously whilst never forgetting that enchanted forests are fundamentally delightful.