The densely dissonant polyphonic texture of the work resembles the Second Piano Sonata of Pierre Boulez, a work Barraqué knew well. In performance, however, the overall impact is quite different from anything of Boulez, and has often been claimed (e.g. by ), to be akin in spirit to the late sonatas of Ludwig van Beethoven."Without doubt the most significant since Hammerklavier" – .
