It was written specifically for the violinist Leila Josefowicz, who performed its world premiere with the New York Philharmonic under Alan Gilbert at Avery Fisher Hall on March 26, 2015.
[1][2] Adams was inspired to write the piece after visiting an exhibit on the history of the Arabian Nights at the Arab World Institute in Paris.
He added, "This is a big sprawling piece, an attempt at a grand dramatic narrative that turns the central character of the Arabian Nights into a feminist heroine who rebels against a patriarchal society and finds her freedom.
"[5] Reviewing a later performance by Josefowicz and the London Symphony Orchestra under the composer, Andrew Clements of The Guardian said the symphony "follows a convincing symphonic shape, with a dialectical first movement that contrasts different blocks of musical material, a sometimes anguished slow movement, fierce climactic scherzo, and a finale that gradually discharges the tension and finds quiet resolution."
He continued, "Adams’s music is as eclectic as ever; sometimes a bit soft-centred, perhaps, with solo-violin writing that does not go much beyond Prokofiev, but stuffed with allusions to a panoply of 20th-century models, with Messiaen the most surprising inclusion.