Edward Greenfield of Gramophone magazine says '. . .a piece full of colourful ideas including many good tunes with the three shepherds for example treated to a gallumphine song in the style of music-hall and with Susanna's Dance bringing anglicized Straussian echoes of Salome's Dance. As the title implies it all leads up to a setting of the Nunc dimittis Simeon's song. . .'September 1996