 In reviewing the first performance for The Independent , Nick Kimberley felt that the Twice Through the Heart " w [ ore ] the scars of a difficult birth " with Sally Burgess " strain [ ing ] to find specific expression in the sharp angles and steep slides Turnage provided " in a work that Kimberley considered less natural than its relatively quickly written companion piece . For this critic , the instrumental writing came over far more successfully than the vocal part with Kimberley praising the use of colour and finding the " draining " final climax particularly effective . Michael Kennedy , in contrast to Kimberley , found the scena " the more dramatic and musically more inventive " of the two works performed that night . 
