“The greatest virtue of Friday’s “Minimalism” concert by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project was to raise the question of whether the minimalism tag has outlived its relevance. Each of the four works the orchestra presented - three by minimalism’s leading lights and one by BMOP’s composer-in-residence, Elena Ruehr - adopted some conventions of the minimalist aesthetic, but each took them in such different directions that it’s doubtful the label is now anything more than a convenient, generic shorthand. . .
It would be difficult to overpraise the performances. BMOP gave each piece the benefit of brilliant and dedicated playing, especially in the strings and percussion, which bore the lion’s share of the work. Gil Rose’s conducting was bracingly clear, as was the singing of Lisa Bielawa, Abby Fischer, Alexandra Montano, and Martha Sullivan in the Reich work. There was nothing minimal about any of it.”
- David Weininger