"...the audience heard an exhilarating exploration of orchestral color, consisting of fragments of (often deafening) sound. A brass choir peals forth over shrieking strings; a clarinet, snare drum and solo violin engage in a lively conversation; and haunting upward string glissandos punctuate the work, dying away mysteriously as they seem to dissolve in the ether. [Conductor Samuel] Wong, the orchestra, and soloist Jacques Israelievitch worked their way deftly through a difficult score, delivering a virtuoso performance."

Paul Mitchinson, Andante.com

"...This was the firmest, most accomplished work I've heard by Ryan, a piece with urgency and cohesion.

Its premise, that the child is father to the man, while the man holds within him the child he once was, allows the violin soloist, as the child, and the orchestra, as the adult, to follow opposite trajectories even as some of their material intersects. Soloist Jacques Israelievitch gave a compelling vulnerability to the high, spare simplicity of the opening violin material and the naive, modal melody that follows.

There were wonderful orchestral effects throughout: muted brass against pizzicato bass and cellos, an orchestra that talked to itself in little two-note phrases as the solo violin trilled in its subconscious, a descending scale in the clarinet (later picked up by the bassoon) interrupted by a grumble of orchestral brass, and superb percussion.

The violin turns were virtuosic in parts, haunting in others. One standout moment was an angular, sophisticated melody that progressed with incredible reluctance, each note stalled by a tremolo, as lonely as a melody can be. Far, far away from an ode to joy, yet still uplifting."

Elissa Poole, Globe and Mail