A bright and boldly-contoured curtain raiser, Nicholas Maw’s Spring Music (1983) burgeons with lyrical vitality. Lasting 14 minutes and scored for a modest orchestra (double wind, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones and tuba, timpani, harp and strings), the work takes its cue from the well-known line of Dylan Thomas that for its composer seems to sum up the energy and beauty of spring: ‘The force that through the green fuse drives the flower.’ 'Spring Music rippled and shimmered with emerging new life: a piece well - named.' The New York Times (Bernard Holland), 13 July 1993