Acclaim

As ever, Gil Rose’s forces proved well prepared and virtuosic.

No 2023 event has been so unforgettable as Boston Modern Orchestra Project and Odyssey Opera’s one-night run of “Awakenings”… Odyssey and BMOP don’t often reprise events, but I’m hoping this will be an exception. Till then, there’s the album.

Conductor Gil Rose did an admirable job with the huge forces involved, including a lovely children’s chorus and the large Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra in the pit.

The singers and orchestra turn in an idiomatic and stylistic gem and the opera is unforgettable and vital all at once.

The company's choir contributes to the lyrical force of a score defended by Gil Rose and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, which confirms that opera, like cinema, is capable of conveying strong stories.

Under Gil Rose, BMOP’s orchestra and chorus offer a vivid rendering of the score, their efforts buttressed by an “improviser ensemble” that helps connect X securely to the realm of jazz.

The music itself, conducted by Odyssey artistic and general director Gil Rose, was rooted in a persistent tone played in a heartbeat-steady rhythm...

Gil Rose led the Boston Modern Orchestra Project in the pit with his customary vigor.

Gil Rose, quite comfortable with experimentation, showed his versatility of style and sophistication.

X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X is now even more relevant than when first presented and can legitimately be regarded as one of the most significant American operas of the last half-century. Needless to say, Rose and the BMOP are to be applauded for casting newfound attention on the work.

Rose, the orchestra, chorus and vocal soloists seemed tireless, especially bass Mikhail Svetlov in his extraordinarily complex and nuanced 20-minute monologue as the miserly baron.

Artistic director and conductor Gil Rose joined forces with BMOP... for a powerful revival of Anthony Davis’s “X: The Life and Times of Malcom X.” This was a fuller, more complete staged version, with a stellar cast...

“X,”... drew a riveting portrait of an entire era with the particular dimensionality and psychological shadings that only opera can bring.

[BMOP, X] recording is fantastic. It is just tremendous... It was a fabulous cast and I couldn’t be happier with the result.

"Leave it to Gil Rose, Boston Modern Orchestra Project and Odyssey Opera to present one of the most important operas of the last decade."

Gil Rose, gave a vigorous and often incandescent account which matched the work of the excellent vocalists...

Gil Rose and the BMOP/Odyssey orchestra and chorus did full justice to the pathos, violence, and sly humor of Corigliano’s writing...

The orchestral contributions... were as refined and secure as this ensemble has ever delivered.

Rose conjured gorgeous playing from every featured section of the Odyssey Opera Orchestra…

Rose’s sense of drama held it all together; there wasn’t a dead moment the entire afternoon.

There can be no praise high enough for what Gil Rose and his inspired forces attained in this remarkable realization of extraordinary music.

Once again Boston audiences are indebted to the questing imagination of Gil Rose.

Gil Rose leading the Odyssey Opera Chorus and Orchestra, it was one for the history books.

Gil Rose appeared in total control of his sizeable performing forces and provided some thrilling orchestral climax’s.

Gil Rose led the small but energetic orchestra with aplomb and accustomed self-assurance, once again Rose has given energy and elan to a hidden gem of the operatic canon.

And of course, it should almost go without saying that Maestro Rose once again pulled a performance out of his orchestra that perfectly encapsulated the spirit of fun that surrounds the work.

Rose’s baton was swift and secure, and the conductor mined every ounce of drama from the score. He drew orchestral accompaniment that was sensitive to the singers’ every phrase. The ballet in Act 4, with its rustic verve and quick Parisian waltzes, was a particular non-vocal highlight.

Rose and the orchestra gave the piece a reading of stirring energy and delicacy.

Conductor Gil Rose displayed his usual sense of style and sophistication, letting the playfulness of the score bubble up naturally and never winking to the audience to indicate how much fun they should be having.

Gil Rose led a compelling performance of this long and often gripping work, in its Boston premiere.

Once again, Rose has proven to be a master of rediscovery of undeservedly overlooked music. It’s a role we should never take for granted.

At Jordan Hall, Odyssey artistic director Gil Rose pulled out every stop in a performance that ran just over four hours, his reading accorded full justice to the thunder and lightning of Russian history.

Conductor Gil Rose was something of a Cid himself on the podium Friday, marshaling his large forces in the seemingly-endless series of crashing climaxes typical of this genre.

Conductor Gil Rose paced the opera’s many climaxes well and kept things flowing both smoothly and, considering the amount of music to get through, rather briskly… In the (performance) category, Odyssey remains the gold standard for professional opera in Boston.

Given Rose’s taught, exciting conducting, it’s time to put aside fears of this opera’s "impossible" length … The audience gave the performers and triumphant conductor Gil Rose a tumultuous ovation.

Gil Rose kept everything moving with a fire-breathing momentum that shaped the whole performance.

But the real star Sunday might have been the Odyssey Opera orchestra. Complemented by offstage bands and women’s chorus, conductor Gil Rose seemed determined to pull all the stops for this performance. It is to his credit that he not only sustains but rides Wagner’s relentless orchestra climaxes without losing orchestral clarity.

Conductor Gil Rose was very much in his element, doing what he does best: keeping up the momentum, offering flawless guidance to the singers and instrumentalists and bringing clarity to almost unbearable musical intricacy.

If Gil Rose and Opera Boston get any hotter, we’re going to have to declare Boston a tropical paradise.

Clearly Gil Rose's experience with contemporary music has developed his ability to read the classics with a fresh ear. There is no doubt that he is one of the most brilliant conductors of the upcoming generation.

Gil Rose is one of Boston’s most skillful and versatile conductors.

Gil Rose emerged as a Mozart conductor of energy and refinement.

Gil Rose conducted with admirable command.

And the applause that greeted the gifted and committed conductor Gil Rose when he appeared to begin the second act showed that the audience recognizes him for the local hero he is.

...the amazingly versatile conductor Gil Rose showed himself the master of yet another operatic style.

In La Vie Parisienne there are more melodies than you can shake a stick at, so conductor Gil Rose shook a stick at them, giving each of them a voluptuous curve, a pinch on the bottom, an ooh la la, and, when it counted, a half hidden tear.

Opera Boston's music director, Gil Rose, proved himself a superb Verdian, thinking out both the subtle details of small phrases and the sweep of entire scenes.

Gil Rose turns out to conduct Verdi as stylishly as he conducts everything else; he was first-rate, and the orchestra played well for him.

Rose led a buoyant and fluid performance from the pit, drawing limpid playing from the orchestra right up through Joan’s final ascension to heaven.

Gil Rose led the assorted forces with his accustomed clarity and assurance.

Hats off to Odyssey artistic director Gil Rose for dreaming this project up. With this season’s offering he has truly outdone himself. From the podium Rose led the large orchestra and chorus in what amounted to a triumph of stamina and execution.

This performance of Dimitrij represents the fourth time in as many years that Gil Rose and Odyssey Opera have provided an exceptionally special and rare musical experience to Boston opera lovers.

Rose conducted the entire program with the precise control and vigor that have made his mark with BMOP ever since 1996.

BMOP once again showed its commitment to new and modern music through high-level performance coupled with active commissioning and engagement with audiences and composers alike. Composers need this orchestra and this conductor. None could want for a better advocate.

Gil Rose's Boston Modern Orchestra Project has championed contemporary American composers for 26 years, and its BMOP/sound label followed suit with a run of great releases.

Reviews of classical music concerts generally serve two purposes: Those who went can compare their observations with those of critics, and those who didn’t... You missed out on some of the finest orchestral playing heard in the city this year.

Mr. Rose managed to tame his orchestra. Not tame as chasten. But tame like a whip‑lashing tiger‑tamer who knows–as did these three composers–that beneath the surface of life and music is both radiance and rage.

Rose captured a sly wit by coaxing playing well attuned to the buoyancy and grace of once popular musical styles.

BMOP concerts constitute real events, Give Rose and his musicians a chance. Perhaps you will happen upon a new composer who you can speak to you-musically and conversationally.

Rose led BMOP in a forceful, sometimes breathless, reading of the piece, one in which the music’s dark undercurrents glowed ominously.

“Conductor Gil Rose, with his clarity of focus, guided the deliberate and frenetic energy of the final movement.

Gil Rose conducted with his customary alertness and precision.

As one has come to expect, BMOP music director and conductor Gil Rose led his forces with verve and style, cutting an easy path for the listener through a thick orchestral text. His orchestra played as if they were one of the Big Five

“Gil Rose demonstrated on Friday evening at the New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall, when he led the Boston Modern Orchestra Project and the soprano Courtenay Budd in a stunning performance of “Child Alice,” the most ambitious work in the series.

On that last count Del Tredici is fortunate, as are we listeners, to have an advocate so resourceful, skillful, and determined as Rose.

Gil Rose and the orchestra delivered a reading that bristled with energy, wry humor, and an unsettled emotional urgency

Rose and the orchestra were attuned to his rhetoric, turning the sheer atmospheric presence of slow-moving and even static landscapes to dramatic ends

Rose’s unmannered conducting of the two dance scores kept the kinetic spirit moving whether it was in sustained contemplation or ferocious energy… Rose keeps the tension up, controlling the vivid opposition of wildly whirling circles of woodwind figures or dissonant rhythmic chords… Gil Rose’s conducting is clear and unfussy, pulling the busy elements together precisely, for all the rhythmic energy and complexity.

Gil Rose led with authority from first note to last.

It’s not too much to say that classical music in the region wouldn’t be nearly as rich, meaningful, or fun as it is without Rose’s tireless advocacy for, especially, the fringes of the repertoire.

Sunday’s performance sparkled under Gil Rose’s baton.

The programming, devised by the festival’s artistic director, Gil Rose, is typically as varied and engaging as, well, we’ve come to expect from Rose’s programming for his other ensembles. It all adds up to something far from predictable, even when the music is familiar. Take Saturday night’s opening night program. It read like a Mendelssohn greatest hits parade ... Rose and the orchestra paid close attention to the details of the score, which resulted in a reading that was both forceful and, texturally, remarkably clear.

Rose and the orchestra performed it with enormous drama and passion ...

The orchestra, under artistic director Gil Rose, played with an assurance that is both familiar and still astonishing.

Conductor Gil Rose drew a consistently passionate and luminous sound from his orchestra … I was impressed once again by his versatility.

Rose seemed highly engaged, and pursued clarity and precision to excellent effect … Rose and the orchestra dug into the sheer physicality of this music.

Rose conducted the orchestra with real feeling, driving it propulsively and bringing out all the color of its tightly woven sonic tapestry.

Rose and the orchestra pumped those colors up to almost overwhelming affect – a wall of brawny, gleaming sound.

Its glorious score, laced with startlingly complex counterpoint and icy-clear vocal styling, made it a perfect vehicle for the no-challenge-too-great BMOP and its inimitable leader.

Rose’s handling of brass is often breathtaking.

Rose next led one of the best live performances I’ve ever heard of one of the 20th century’s most sublime ballet scores.

BMOP’s artistic director Gil Rose deftly conducted the eclectic program with his customary avant-garde calm.

The BMOP players and Mr. Rose were with him every step of the way, energetically articulating the score’s kaleidoscopic colors … [they] again procured ideal accompanists, enunciating the score’s architecture with clarity and purpose … they are one of the city’s – and the nation’s – most important musical treasures.

Rose maintained a strong intensity throughout the work and under his attentive direction, the musicians delivered a remarkably moving performance.

"BMOP's performance left the audience in a stunned silence that broke into violent applause.

Gil Rose is a wonderful conductor, and amazes everybody around this city with his undertakings with this ensemble and also with Opera Boston, which he directs.

BMOP, under Gil Rose, gave the kind of vital, secure performances we have come almost to take for granted. May the remain glorious and subversive for years to come.

BMOP’s performances draw the city’s youngest concert crowds by far, with their combination of Rose’s savvy programming, the orchestra’s incisive and stylish playing, and a general vibe that somehow weds a breezy coolness with a healthy dose of chaos.

...sculpted with conductor Gil Rose’s characteristic verve and clarity.

The audience went wild for the soloist, the band, the piece, the composer, and BMOP’s animator, the versatile, unobtrusive, and expert Rose.

Rose displayed a keen understanding of how to pace the large work.

When the music finally stopped, the audience brought Gil Rose out for three curtain calls - deservedly so.

Throughout, Rose and the orchestra nailed every detail, in every style. BMOP's opening concert set a high bar for all contemporary-music events this season.

The Boston Symphony Chamber Players, led by conductor Gil Rose, delivered a positively glowing rendition of Wagner's "Siegfried Idyll.

BMOP founder and artistic director Gil Rose has a genius for programming … all the performances were first-rate, and Rose leads every piece as if it were his favorite.

Gil Rose led his excellent ensemble with unmistakable skill, featuring a meticulous ear for balance and detail.

BMOP Music Director Gil Rose - who in less than a decade here has become one of the most important musicians in this city - led his marvelous orchestra...

Gil Rose never met a score he couldn't tame.

If there were a classical music man of the month, November would surely belong to conductor Gil Rose. Indeed, sometimes it’s hard to imagine how Boston music existed before Rose arrived in town.

Gil Rose and his BMOP forces gave it their everything — a detailed, rich, ravishing performance.

…handsomely played by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project under Gil Rose, a hero of the evening.

This listener will sit in a room any time with Gil Rose conducting.

Artistic Director Gil Rose puts together programs with punch, and he and his ensemble have whacked 20 years off the average age of the usual concert audience.

All performed flawlessly. And much of the credit for that must surely go to Gil Rose himself — the tall, graceful, soothingly assured figure standing amidst the mayhem, his alchemist's wonder and delight at the transcendent effect of the music's manifold ingredients very much apparent. The fact that such feelings were also rife amongst the audience was unequivocally attested to by the gasps that accompanied the finales of each of the four pieces performed.

New music often makes concert-goers run for the emergency exits. But in the hands of experts like Gil Rose and his Boston Modern Orchestra Project, new work is as comforting as a snug blanket in the winter. The full house at Jordan Hall this snowy Saturday evening enjoyed this expertise in a startling program of recent compositions.

Rose's BMOP concert during the convention of the American Symphony Orchestra League last May blew the socks off the jaded delegates.

The concert by Gil Rose and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project on Saturday morning was sensational; a member of a panel afterward said it may have been the best single concert he had ever heard.

Mr. Rose and his team filled the music with rich, decisive ensemble colors and magnificent solos. In scores whose dominant expressive position is one of rapture, these musicians were rapturous.

Music director Gil Rose is some kind of genius; his concerts are wildly entertaining, intellectually rigorous, and meaningful. He combines a fanatical attention to detail with a hang-loose insouciance that sets the tone for the entire orchestra. With him and the band, music is a liberated living thing, dancing off the page and outside the box.

Rose, an incisive and forthright conductor.

Gil Rose comes up with the most interesting programs in town, hires the snazziest musicians to play them and conducts knock-out performances... Rose led a chamber-sized band in an iridescent performance... Rose kept our feet to the fire throughout this clenched and questioning work, and the orchestra's playing was simply electrifying.

You're not likely to find local concert programs more unusual, more challenging and more satisfying than those of the Boston Modern Orchestra Project and its music director, Gil Rose.

The performance directed by Gil Rose was outstanding... directed with sureness of purpose and delight in the wonder of things."

...music director Gil Rose, a no-nonsense conductor who eschews conductorial choreography in favor of plain competence. He knows the music cold, and never turns his attention from the orchestra. The orchestra, in turn, plays extremely well.

...a gifted music director, Gil Rose. In an ambitious evening Thursday, he proved that his music-making is as lively as his programming ideas.

Gil Rose and his audacious Boston Modern Orchestra Project ensemble have made it: This delightfully spirited release of ballets by John Alden Carpenter is the 100th to emerge on BMOP/sound, the ensemble’s record label. It’s an astonishing achievement, as much for the fund-raising and other administrative work that has been involved in bringing each of the recordings to life as for the artistic courage and technical accomplishment that mark the music-making on them all.

On "Trouble" members of The Boston Modern Orchestra Project perform music that is refined in its conception, purposeful in its scoring and thoroughly involving as a listening experience. The interaction of instrumentalists animating each piece in these excellent performances communicates a collective dynamic rather than a lone creative voice being granted expression by an orchestra.

Whatever your mood, this album has something for you. And I mean it.

The set rewards on multiple levels: in bookending two concerti with a fanfare-like piece and a symphony, the set offers an encompassing portrait, and the BMOP delivers the material with its customary zeal and fastidious attention to detail.

The collection leaves you leave grateful for the Boston Modern Orchestra Project’s usual confident performances, and wanting to hear more from Iyer the composer.

None of this prepared me for the immense effectiveness of Awakenings, an opera that received its first production at Opera Theatre of St. Louis in 2022 and now reaches listeners through a recording (with a few of the same singers and excellent new ones) thanks to the tireless efforts of Odyssey Opera and its imaginative and enterprising founder-conductor Gil Rose.

All of the repertoire is played with intense drama and suavity by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project led by Gil Rose, a champion of living composers with a keen ear for texture, balance and dramatic contrast.

Abetted by abundantly talented soloists and the skillful advocacy and playing of BMOP under Rose, this release is highly recommended.

I cannot imagine a stronger case being made for the score than the one here by Gil Rose and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project.

Gil Rose conducts with appropriate energy and variety, and the recorded sound is well managed.

Flutist Sarah Brady and violinist Gabriela Diaz are perfection in their showcase works, while Gil Rose skillfully leads the Boston Modern Orchestra Project throughout.

Moravec's music is performed splendidly by the BMOP and Rose, and once again the company has done the composer and the listening audience a great service in making such material physically available and in such fine form. As the orchestra inches ever closer to its 100th formal release—Moravec's is its ninety-seventh—there's no better time than the present to acknowledge the vital contribution Rose and the ensemble have made to the contemporary music landscape.

... the recording offers a superb sampling of the composer's artistry and stylistic approach, especially when the material's delivered with so much enthusiasm by Rose, the BMOP, and the soloists.

Marc-André Hamelin, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and conductor Gil Rose give a dashing performance on this release (BMOP/sound), which also includes three other Tower concertos. Of those, “Red Maple,” for bassoon and strings, shows how delicate and imaginative Tower’s textural palette can be.

This album from the dependable Boston Modern Orchestra Project, an orchestra devoted to contemporary music, spotlights four terrific concertos with expert soloists.

Now on to the new recordings. John Corigliano’s “The Lord of Cries” (Pentatone) and Tobias Picker’s “Awakening” (BMOP/sound) are evidence of the cornucopia of new American operas and some of the best of the recent lot. Each of the works debuted in fully staged productions during the past couple of years, at Santa Fe Opera and Opera Theatre of St. Louis respectively, but both recordings are performed by the versatile and impressive Boston Modern Orchestra Project, conducted by Gil Rose.

Picker’s score ebbs and flows through a contemporary Romantic vein that he has made his own with a fine ear for instrumentation. Gil Rose, conducting an ensemble with strings, winds, a harp, tuba and piano, relishes a Ravel-like waltz when the patients feel the first benefits of the drug L-Dopa.

The recording... features the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, timeless and prolific advocates for new American music. Conductor Gil Rose's direction is punchy and dramatically alert, while the recording is appropriately in your face.

Once again, Boston Modern Orchestra Project under Gil Rose do the honors and prove sure-footed guides, clarifying even the knottiest passages to get to the nub of this richly conceived masterwork.

Gil Rose conducts the Boston Modern Orchestra Project and the Odyssey Opera Chorus in this complex score with firm control and a strong feeling for drama and dread.

Gil Rose conducts the bravura score with a flourish.

Chorus and orchestra respond excellently to the lively direction of Gil Rose, whose consistently sympathetic approach to rare and unusual repertoire should be a model for many conventional opera directors.

The performances by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, under their founder Gil Rose, are assured and, as is so often appropriate in Dorman’s music, glistening and vividly recorded... The Dorman is release 90, and ten more are scheduled to appear by December 2023, making a round 100!

...Gil Rose and [BMOP] vividly perform Dorman's very vivid compositions.

In response to the libretto’s blend of paganism and Gothic horror, Corigliano has composed a score that radiates eerie, nocturnal energy... Led by conductor Gil Rose, members of BMOP — often instructed to improvise — conjure the sounds of scurrying, screeching, flitting, and flapping.

Gil Rose and his Boston Modern Orchestra Project... produce another stunning recording of these seminal works, giving me yet another CD to try to squeeze into the... If there ever was a CD that is a sine qua non for the contemporary music collector, this is it.

In the literary world, this opera would be described as a page-turner... It’s a first-class package on every level...

BMOP is led with the vigor and commitment that can almost be taken for granted under the visionary leadership of Gil Rose, here joined by the forces of Odyssey Opera. The recording is clear and spacious.

[Vanessa Schukis and Anna Baty] could have no better companions than the Boston Modern Orchestra Project with Gil Rose directing.

"Gil Rose and BMOP now give us three works fresh to the catalogue... Each is punctiliously tracked, section by section, movement by movement... The sound is spectacularly clear – no compromise here.

This new recording by Odyssey Opera, taken from a 2018 performance that was the work's first hearing in the US, offers a fuller text... and far better orchestral playing under Gil Rose.

"...Gil Rose and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project animate all three scores to vivid theatrical life..."

Gil Rose has a special knack for finding music that has somehow slipped through the cracks.

Rose and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project deliver sterling performances. All of the accolades they've received for the work they've done since the BMOP's founding in 1996 are wholly deserved. A simple scan of its remarkable discography reveals how much attention has been given to composers whose names might threaten to fade into obscurity were it not for the support they've received from the company.

Restored to fullness, there is a sweep and grandeur to the music that occasionally flags but is largely irresistible.

In which a young Malcolm Little — not yet surnamed X — receives a tour of Boston while listeners get a sense of what makes Davis one of today’s great opera composers...

... this new recording with Odyssey Opera and Boston Modern Orchestra Project led by Gil Rose, is a little weightier, benefits from a tighter libretto, and is generally more involving.

Walter Piston won't win any awards for expressing geysers of passion in his music, but he was a true craftsman and these four relatively brief works (the Concerto for Orchestra is the longest, at 14 minutes) have plenty of musical meat on their bones. The Boston Modern Orchestra Project, as usual, plays them very well under Gil Rose's leadership, and the engineering is excellent. A fine release for collectors of good American orchestral music.

Deservedly awarded the 2020 Grammy for ‘Best Opera Recording,’ Fantastic Mr. Fox is the latest feather in the cap of BMOP and its conductor Gil Rose.

…25 Best Classical Music tracks of 2019.

Gil Rose conducts a performance of arresting character, finesse and instrumental prowess.

This exciting recording of four works by Stephen Hartke, written over some 30 years, confirms that he is one of the most distinctive and important living composers.

Rose conducts with a pace and wit

Gil Rose conducts a performance at once elegant and vibrant.

Gil Rose invests each score with incisive and brilliant intensity

Rose and BMOP aren’t afraid to really let it rip in this music’s most powerful moments.

performances under Gil Rose all the vibrancy that this relentless original music deserves

Gil Rose and the Boston ensemble raise the sonic roof when the aren’t savoring the delicate pleasures in Crockett’s music

Conductor Gil Rose does a masterful job in presenting and pacing these performances.

Rose and the ensemble have produced a series of terrific albums over the last few years. As far as I’m concerned, this one is their finest yet.

Gil Rose conducts the BMOP in richly detailed and vivid performances.

Now there is an essential and rewarding new recording of Fine’s complete orchestra works, performed with expertise, zest and style by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project conducted by Gil Rose … Most important, though, is this arresting account of Fine’s Symphony.

As usual the BMOP under Gil Rose turn in fantastic performances.

in a brashly confident performance by BMOP and Gil Rose, that most clearly points up Norman’s staggering imagination and talent.

2014 Best Classical Music Album Pick.