‘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.’