[1] The Cello Concerto has a duration of roughly 18 minutes and is composed in seven movements played continuously: Carter briefly described the composition in the score program notes, writing, "My Cello Concerto is introduced by the soloist alone, playing a frequently interrupted cantilena that presents ideas later to be expanded into movements.
In this score I have tried to find meaningful, personal ways of revealing the cello's vast array of wonderful possibilities.
Steve Smith of The New York Times called it an "eruptive work" and praised its "mercurial shifts and puckish gestures.
"[3] Peter Dickinson of Gramophone wrote:The Carter [Cello] Concerto comes from his productive final phase.
[...] Carter said he aimed at 'meaningful, personal ways of revealing the cello's vast array of wonderful possibilities'.