“[Jessie Montgomery and Cynthia Yeh] clearly stirred up an intriguing, richly dramatic work for the orchestra in which the bold, mood-shifting sounds of percussion (on a drum set, djembe/bass drum, vibraphone and glockenspiel) burst into an intriguing, dramatically varied 20-minute piece full of musical surprises. (In fact, it is difficult to imagine how this score has even been notated in many places.)

Yeh captured the work’s big, fast, drum-beating opening followed by the cellos and winds, with others on drums and timpani. And while she supplied wild rhythms on a giant drum — and at times deftly operated four sticks to capture the beats on both drums and other instruments — the rest of the orchestra tapped into the beauty of Montgomery’s sometimes lyrical, sometimes brassy, sometimes dreamy, sometimes march-like score that even includes the sound of church bells.”