The work was commissioned by the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music and is dedicated to conductor and frequent Rouse collaborator Marin Alsop.
The second half would consist of two sections, a slow one and a fast one, each meant to represent a sort of "full blossoming" of the related ideas from their counterparts earlier on.
My hope was to draw the listener in more and more as the work progressed, with the final allegro building to a frenzied, almost hysterical, climax.
"[3] Scott MacClelland of Metro Silicon Valley similarly praised the work, saying, "Christopher Rouse's Concerto for Orchestra, composed with dazzling virtuosity, gave Marin Alsop's musicians a showpiece of fierce demands and breathtaking execution.
MacClelland further remarked, "...for all the dizzying activity, colors and effects, Rouse delivered this commission with an idiomatic mastery of the instruments and categorical style integrity.