Jeremy Eichler of
The Boston Globe, reviewing the world premiere writes: "At work from the start is Saariaho's sensitive ear and highly individual feel for orchestral color, later enhanced by bright splashes of percussion. ... The solo cello, often in stratospheric registers, volleys passionately with the orchestra. Saariaho uses many of her signature extended techniques, including notes purposefully crushed with the bow until they resemble noise."
Anthony Tommasini of
The New York Times writes about a New York performance: "Though the work is ominous and searching over all, there are strongly contrasting sections, as in the second movement, which erupts into spiraling orchestra riffs and fitful cello outbursts. As always in a Saariaho score, color is primary...", Jochem Valkenburg of
NRC Handelsblad in Amsterdam writes about a performance with the
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra: "Saariaho is a wizard with sounds - within three notes, she places the listener in a magical glittering world of sound... These "erratic" tones are characteristic of the piece, and of Saariaho's work in general: not one note is simple - they slide away stretching or volatilising into harmonics." Reviewing a recording of
Notes on Light with Saariaho's
Orion, Tim Ashley of
The Guardian modestly praised the pieces as "securely done, though both are soft-centred works that throb and thrum appealingly, but lack the underlying toughness of Saariaho's best music." David Fanning of
Gramophone similarly opined that it "feels just a fraction long for its material". Reviewing a performance of
Notes on Light for reduced orchestra, Allan Ulrich of the
Financial Times writes, "...the soloist broods, rejoices, rhapsodises, laments and establishes a formal contour with a pair of recurring intervals. The descriptive movement titles provide a guide through the work. But this is music that appeals as much to the senses as the intellect." Rebecca Wishnia of the
San Francisco Classical Voice said it "develops this orchestral writing to even greater heights" and wrote: ==References==