In the score program notes, he wrote, "I was intrigued how the 'shimmy' music played by the cabaret band is itself simple and emotionless, but forms an effective counterpoint to the powerful drama in the foreground.
In the score program notes, Gruber described the composition as "progressing through a chain of developing variations," which "is closest in form to a Sinfonietta with piano solo.
The music critic Anthony Tommasini of The New York Times described the piece as "an intricate and provocative score" and "a 24-minute single-movement concerto that unfolds with inexorable sweep and rhythmic persistence, even during some stream-of-consciousness stretches."
"[4]David Wright of the New York Classical Review similarly lauded the piece's "glittering, Gershwin-like piano syncopations and lush orchestral sonorities à la Rachmaninoff.
"[5] Conversely, Jay Nordlinger of The New Criterion was more critical of the work, remarking, "I think the Gruber Piano Concerto is a piece that interested and amused the composer, in his own head.