[1] The Octet was inspired by Stefan Zweig's novella "Letter from an Unknown Woman" and bears the same name.

[3] The work comprises two movements which performed without pause: A typical performance of the work lasts around eighteen minutes The original score is for a double string quartet with four violins and pairs of violas and cellos.

"[4] Carlos Maria Solare of The Strad wrote about Octet: "it is the most musically ambitious piece".

[5] Ateş Orga of ClassicalSource.com wrote: "The power of Ichmouratov's writing, his filmic way of giving G-minor a life and death born out of elegiac Tchaikovsky, Mahlerian Schubert, fin de siècle Vienna, the bleakness of wartime Shostakovich, urged me back to the original story.

[6] David Guttman of Gramophone summarizes much of its reception: "Here there is greater ability to think in paragraphs and a leaner style of melodic emoting, supplementing the usual Romantic Russians with elements recalling Korngold, Schoenberg and Strauss".