[5] In the Modern Language Review, professor Anat Vernitki of the University of Essex praised the book's focus on gender, but added that "spiritualist and religious" aspects could have been analyzed too.
"[8] In a review for The Slavic and East European Journal, professor Brad Michael Damaré of the University of Southern California called it, "a very well-researched, well-argued monograph about a writer whose work on Russian music deserves exactly this kind of reassessment.
In a review for Notes, Ryan Ross, an assistant professor at Mississippi State University, described it as "a collection that teaches us much about Sibelius, but at least as much about Rosa Newmarch.
In a review for the Journal of European Studies, professor Marina Frolova-Walker of the University of Cambridge commends Bullock for separating the artistic self from the personal, especially with regards to Tchaikovsky's homosexuality, which did not necessarily inform his music.
She highlighted that Bullock's "lucid and factually reliable account of both Tchaikovsky’s personal and artistic lives is written with style and elegance", and that it "contains a wealth of historical and musical detail.