The work was commissioned by the La Jolla Chamber Music Society's SummerFest with additional contributions from Joan and Irwin M. Jacobs.
[1] Reviewing the world premiere, Mark Swed of the Los Angeles Times called it "an unusually unsettled and dark-seeming tone from a composer whose works have tended to be sunnier.
What follows is both furious and strangely gorgeous, impressive virtuoso flourishes on open strings, fancy scale work and passages thick with chords.
The final, flutey bars are but the hint of laughter regained, just sweet enough to leave a comforting afterglow, especially with Lin's masterful performance evoking the best Bach playing.
[2]Molly Sheridan of NewMusicBox later described the piece as "a little showy, a little classic, a little melancholy, but mostly just written in such a way that it fits together as tightly as an aural jigsaw puzzle.