. . .a bleak unease in the unrelenting energy of the first movement, which becomes even more discomfiting in the desolate start to the Lento. This leads to a forlorn suggestion of a funeral march, which then ironically quickens in pace but is suddenly cut down, the drum strokes become menacingly powerful and the despairing mood of the movement's opening returns. . . and grips the listener in the music's pessimism. . .'
Ivan March, Gramophone, December 1995