[3] Ken Dryden reviewed the album for Allmusic and wrote that "...Dave Brubeck still has the drive that he had some 40 years earlier, both as a performer and composer.

All nine compositions appear on disc for the first time, starting with "The Crossing," Brubeck's lively musical vision of a passenger ship getting underway for a long trip across the ocean, though a ship's engines would burn out if they kept up with the intensity of this piece...Overall, this is yet another memorable release by Dave Brubeck".

At the age of 80 he not only maintains a schedule of touring and recording, but his latest finds him writing challenging new pieces and arrangements...There's an elegance to much of Brubeck's work these days, most notably on "Bessie," named and composed in memory of his mother; "All My Love," written for Iola, his wife of 59 years; and the stately waltz "Hold Fast to Dreams," taken from his suite of vocal settings of Langston Hughes poems."

Appelbaum reserved criticism for the title track, which he felt was a "set of changes without melody propelled by a pseudo rock beat.

[5] Dave Nathan reviewed The Crossing for All About Jazz and wrote that "Having performed in each of the last seven decades, Brubeck has passed the greatest and sternest test of all, time.