Of all Palestine composers, Alexander Boscovitch has the most distinctive genius. This was demonstrated by his violin concerto. […] Three elements form a surprising unity in Boskovitch’s work. First, the heritage of Bela Bartok, with whom he has a common country of origin in Hungary, a common abundance of rhythms and a common precision in part-writing. Secondly, the French impressionist school (he has studied in Paris). Thirdly, the Palestine experience, the devotion to the music of the east, with the Jewish and Arab notes with which Boskovitch’s music is impregnated.
Max Brod, in his column “Tone and Shadow”, after the Violin Concerto’s world premiere;
Forum, March 3, 1944
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You are one of the few (perhaps the only one) who perceives the essence of our region’s atmosphere, and reflects it with new artistic means. You have the courage required for a new primitivism. Your melos is genuine and powerful, the phrasing innovative and transparent in its Eastern essence, with a one voice arrangement accompanied by heterophonic voices which join to form a new kind of polyphony (neither functional nor atonal). I was especially impressed by your laudable willingness and ability to avoid the addition of dense harmonic layers.
Dr. Edith Gerson-Kiwi, 15.10.1945, In a letter to Boskovich
Dr. Gerson-Kiwi was a pioneer in the ethnomusicological study of Arab and Jewish music in Israel