 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.
