'...more and more impressed by its masterly integration, by a fullness of harmony and scoring rare in Briten, by its manifold pro-echoes of his later works-from Gloriana  to the Suite on English Folk Tunes, from The Prince of the Pagodas to the Cello Symphony-and by one strange transition the like of which he never attempted elsewhere.'
Bayan Northcott, The Sunday Telegraph, 26 February 1984