The Suite from The Victorian Kitchen Garden, by Paul Reade, echoes in my mind as I take a moment of calm, sitting with a brew in the garden, amid a crazily busy week. It never ceases to amaze me how a collection of notes on a page (here specifically for clarinet and orchestra) can magically create a musical representation of a scene. I only recently realised that this music was composed for a TV series which followed the reconstruction of a Victorian garden - which explains the programmatic element of the music. The activity of the birds busily going about their business, or the eccentricities of a local National Trust Garden are all echoed in this music. It’s one of my favourite works.