[1][5] From this relatively simple beginning, the music very gradually intensifies, with the cello interacting with various chamber-like groups picked out of the orchestra, slowly gathering momentum and at long last reaching a tempestuous climax before returning to silence.
[4][7][8] Soloist Alisa Weilerstein described Outscape as "a very interesting combination of yearning lyricism and urgent drive", almost "neo-romantic in that it is emotionally very open, and yet its orchestration and language is absolutely of today".
[4] According to James L. Zychowicz, Alisa Weilerstein... gave an intense and involving performance, with rich tone evident from the start.
Her clarity in the more florid sections, riding above the full sound of the orchestra, was never strained, and she made the piece seem familiar—a testament to her involvement with the score.
[7] While John von Rhein stated that If the Chicago Symphony Orchestra must be reduced to playing only one world premiere this season, let it be a new work as absorbing and important as French composer Pascal Dusapin's cello concerto, "Outscape"... Weilerstein, Macelaru and the orchestra deserve enormous credit for having argued the score's considerable merits at this level of dedication.