by Carol WrightStrong and compelling melodies and lovely synth orchestral settings make Gary Stadler's Fairy of the Woods a magical charmer, based upon the play The Goblin's Bride. Much of the album enchants with variations in three-quarter time: the romantic "Sometimes," which carries the heart like an anniversary waltz; the crystalline music box of "DreamSpell"; "Ring of Magic," which pirouettes over cloud tops; the almost comic lumbering of "Awakening"; and the stately progression of "Moonflight." Stadler's melodies and arrangements are classically structured, but his orchestrations offer a colorful imagination the opportunity to inhabit legendary Celtic realms of fairies and wizards with their colorful glens and caves, fireflies, and stardust. "Wings at Rest" ends the album with a kingly nobility, a courtly procession of fellowship and good will.