The work was jointly commissioned by the San Francisco Symphony and the violinist Ole Bøhn.
Reviewing the New York City premiere, Bernard Holland of The New York Times recommended the Violin Concerto, writing:The concerto keeps the orchestra at bay by delicate orchestrations, gaps of silence and attacks of sound in little puffs.
The violin spends much of the time in its highest registers, creating a penetrating timbre that reinforces the highly ornamented legato line.
[4] John von Rhein of the Chicago Tribune also praised the work, commenting, "Those listeners who normally find Carter's music abrasive should be pleased to discover how lyrical and flowing this music is.
"[5] Andrew Clements of The Guardian lauded the form and orchestration of the piece, writing:The effect is of a seamless span of music that is articulated by kaleidoscopic changes of colour and textures, with a mosaic of thematic ideas in which the solo violin interacts with ensembles drawn from the orchestra, like a tapestry of chamber music in which the instrumentation is constantly changing and with the solo line weaving its way in and out of the orchestral textures as new perspectives constantly reveal themselves.