 Answering the orchestra’s calls for clarity, a solo piano cadenza, added in 1965, revisits the journey of the characters, and is taken up by the full orchestra, which builds to a radiant close.The listener, as well as the reader, finds that “what is left, it turns out, is faith.”

The work was premiered on April 8, 1949, with Serge Koussevitzky conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the composer at the piano.It was met with good reviews and received a repeat performance in Tanglewood that summer.