'The piece is impressive, strong in its brevity and aphoristic tension.  Lush strings – the Britten Sinfonia sound is very opulent – and ricocheting oboe phrases encapsulate the “bitter sweetness” of desire.  The “fire that races benath the skin” cues a twitchy, obsessive blue.  The cantata ends with a famous meditation on the setting moon and Pleiades.  The strings unfold a sequence of shivery Bergian chords, and voice and oboe briefly entwine before the singer is left in solitude.  Throughout, Chance’s voice hovers in a world beyond gender, perhaps acknowledging that we at long last accept a universality of emotion in Sappho that transcends orientation'
The Guardian (Tim Ashley), 13 June 2001