Reviewing the world premiere, Stephen Walsh of The Arts Desk called the music "intricate and self-absorbed, sonorities like birdsong in the upper branches, seldom coming to the ground but finely heard and very cleverly scored for a dozen instruments."[2] Ivan Hewett of The Daily Telegraph similarly lauded, "Charlotte Bray’s light-footed mini-violin concerto Caught in Treetops seized the image of the moon in Dante Gabriel Rossetti sonnet."[4] Igor Toronyi-Lalic of The Arts Desk called the work "intriguing" and wrote:
An obsessive violin line attempts to bounce its way out of its predicament through arpeggio runs to the G string. When the orchestra joins the outstanding soloist Alexandra Wood, primitive, André Jolivet-like harmonies creep into earshot and drag the work into a sultry slow section. Her orchestration was rather tasty. Her shifting evocations were cleanly and interestingly explored. I'd be very interested to hear the work again.[5]
Richard Whitehouse of Gramophone praised the "powerful concertante writing" of the piece and lauded the "tensile cadenza which duly casts its aura over the respectively capricious and meditative movements."[6]