He added, "It's not atypical to find this type of mashup in my music, with bits of jazz, hints of Stravinsky and Messiaen, machine-music, and wild strings of notes all over the violin.
She added, "Dotted with cadenzas that put the soloist back in the forefront, the concerto demonstrated Kernis' command of the complete orchestral palette, from cataclysmic brass passages to otherworldly solo harmonics over hushed strings.
And in the wildly eclectic third movement, Kernis pushed the soloist toward the frontiers of technique, with double-stop runs and a final cadenza so scarily difficult that audience members were gasping in disbelief.
"[4] Andrew Mellor of Gramophone was more tempered in his praise, however, remarking, "There’s some entertaining, dazzling, smile-inducing, toe-tapping music here but I can't give you a cast-iron promise that there's much more.
Aaron Jay Kernis is the preeminent orchestral showman of the age and his meeting of minds with Heifetz's representative on earth James Ehnes has resulted in a concerto that goes through just about every motion possible.