"Rarely can a shattering multi-layered orchestral tutti (exotically coloured with cimbalom, saxophones and accordion) have been so relentlessly sustained and to such passionate and expressive effect."

Sunday Times, May 9th 1999

"Love Cries is new and yet not quite new. It is music derived from the composer's most recent opera, The Second Mrs Kong, arranged by Michael Berkeley. Some, including the highly effective opening, had to be 'recomposed', but most is pure Birtwistle, and as a concert work it makes a huge impact. Perhaps because it is based on some of the opera's strongest music, perhaps because the orchestra has been expanded, or perhaps because of this performance, the music seemed even more powerful than it did at Glyndebourne in 1994... Its nucleus is the love music of King Kong and Pearl, the girl with the earring in Vermeer's portrait... But their three love duets contain some of the most ecstatic music Birtwistle has ever written".

The Times (London), May 7th 1999

"The Second Mrs Kong, first performed by Glyndebourne Touring Opera in 1994, is the most approachable and direct of Harrison Birtwistle's operas. Russell Hoban's libretto is moving, wise and often very funny, and the gallery of characters he invented a treasure trove of mythological, historical and cultural allusions, to all of which Birtwistle responded with an expressive freedom that signalled a new phase in his music... (Love Cries is) a highly successful condensation... The music moves with a perfectly weighted trajectory and came over very powerfully in this authoritative first performance: the music for the duets is the most passionate Birtwistle has ever written, coloured with saxophone, accordion and cimbalom in a totally beguiling way, with vocal lines that twine ecstatically around each other."

The Guardian, May 1st 1999