‘The album ends with a bracing 25 minute Violin Concerto (2001), played by Laura Frautschi, for whom it was written. And just when you think you have acclimated to Mr. Hyla’s raucousness, the music takes time to ruminate, with lacy, pensive violin writing and tender orchestra harmonies that pay subtle homage to the haunting Violin Concerto of Alban Berg.’ – Anthony Tommasini, New York Times, 6/13/04

‘Hyla put together one of the most unpleasant series of snorts and squalls I’ve heard in a long time. (There is just no polite way to say this)…..Frankly it was trash and should be appropriately disposed of.’

‘The eventful Concerto for bass clarinet dates from 1988. Just over ten minutes long, it is dense enough to fill a work twice its length. The soloist quacks and rasps like an ugly duckling, but the possibility of a more beautiful ‘swanhood’ is not far away. While Hyla’s idiom is Classical, he uses musical gestures and phrases in a jazz-like manner; the repeated use of the word ‘riffs’ in Ted Mook’s ‘insider-y’ booklet notes is very appropriate. It’s impossible to suck the juice from this work in one or two sittings, and hardly more possible to do so in a dozen- there’s just so much going on. Something about Hyla’s music makes one want to try, however.’

‘A rare opportunity to hear several of the major symphonic works of a true American original. Hyla happily mingles expressionistic, complex contemporary atonal idioms with elements of avant-garde jazz, and rock and garage band with results that cannot be anticipated. His honking, strongly articulated rhythms mask an inner beauty that almost always seems ready to burst into radiant sunshine.’

‘The Bass Clarinet Concerto features the great bass clarinetist Tim Smith. It pushes Tim Smith’s bass clarinet all over, bravely swirling, sailing, floating on top of the slowly evolving, elegantly exciting orchestral terrain.’

‘The one movement Violin Concerto is more relaxed and some of its Schoenbergian textures are frankly gorgeous.’