Reviewing the world premiere, Ivan Hewett of The Daily Telegraph compared the work favorably to Lindberg's Violin Concerto No.
1, saying:[3] it proved to be a bigger-boned, more expansive utterance than his first [and] reminded us why Lindberg is the go-to composer for many orchestras in search of a user-friendly premiere.
It gave an agreeable sense that modernist abstraction doesn't have to be penitentially austere, in fact it can be made to sound positively gorgeous.Richard Fairman of the Financial Times wrote: His new violin concerto unfolds with a massive, expansive feel to it, like the soundtrack to some epic Scandinavian film noir.
Musical theorists will be pleased to note that a large proportion of the score is derived from a three-chord progression played by the violin at the outset, so there is no lack of technical discipline.
[4]Reviewing the New York City premiere, James R. Oestreich of The New York Times similarly observed:[5] The work, in three continuous movements interrupted only by an extended cadenza, is big and attractive, deeply satisfying in its proportions and contours.Sean Piccoli of the New York Classical Review was more critical of the piece, however, remarking:[6] The concerto is an attractive set piece for reconciling Respighi's love of orderly harmony within Stravinsky's search for beauty in chaos.