Its world premiere was given by Balsom and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra conducted by Edward Gardner at the Cheltenham Music Festival on 6 July 2019.
In the score program note, Musgrave wrote, "This idea of using the trumpet as a 'singing' instrument immediately captured my imagination."
The composer wroteI was immediately grabbed by the image of the very first painting I looked at—Opening Out—with the energy of the tree reaching from the roots upwards and outwards.
Richard Bratby of The Arts Desk wrote, "Throughout this short, dramatic, often skittish work you felt that same sense of an artist in complete control of her material, and saying what she has to say precisely as she means to say it.
"[3] Mark Swed of the Los Angeles Times similarly called the concerto "a delight," adding, "Musgrave's orchestral writing is robust.