BMOP/sound marks 100th release

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 fundraising 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.

Much of BMOP’s focus has been on contemporary composers. John Harbison was the subject of its first release 16 years ago, and since then the likes of Andrew Norman, Vijay Iyer, Ellen Taaffe Zwilichand Lisa Bielawa have received careful, dedicated attention. Just as satisfying, though, has been Rose’s belief in some of the 20th-century composers whose music other orchestras have chosen to forget: Lukas Foss, Walter Piston, Irving Fine and so on.

That side of BMOP is celebrated here, in marvelously committed performances of “Krazy Kat,”“The Birthday of the Infanta” and “Skyscrapers,” all written between 1917 and 1926 and brilliantly inflected with echoes of the jazz that Carpenter thought was an essential ingredient in the music of his time. “Skyscrapers,” written initially at the asking of Sergei Diaghilev, is especially fine, a riotous depiction of modern Americans at work and play. Like every BMOP release, this deserves a listen.

‍