I cannot describe the knowledge that struck during that call except to say that the breath of mortality, bearing at this moment on the person closest to me, came suddenly and radically near."
He continued:Other action temporarily impossible, I went to work and by eleven A.M. had composed in every detail the fourth movement, which (perhaps superstitiously) I have not subsequently revised.
Lisa Hirsch of the San Francisco Classical Voice wrote, "It's an engrossing work, full of interesting detail and structural experimentation.
The centerpiece, a fourth movement labeled Threnody, begins with a string-based theme, deeply lyrical and pensive, with accents from the back of the orchestra.
[4]Matthew Guerrieri of The Boston Globe was slightly more critical of the work, however, saying "...the whole symphony feels like workings-through, of influences, forms, processes, difficulties."