Today, roughly four decades after the musical style labeled minimalism started seeping out of SoHo galleries into the mainstream, it's hard to remember how it used to be considered a terrible threat to all that was holy and sacred.
Critics huffed and puffed about the torturous repetitions of all those simple, mostly consonant chords, undernourished melodic snippets and motor rhythms. Staid symphony and opera audiences were known to work up some vociferous indignation, too.
If you go The NSO performs at 8 tonight at the Kennedy Center, Virginia and New Hampshire avenues Northwest, Washington. $20-$80. 800-444-1324 or kennedy-center.org.