Keith Potter, Independent News, 2005
ESEM for Solo Bass and Ensemble had to be rescued from the warehouse of his former publishers, but now kept archived in UE (Vienna) for this performance. It reveals immediately its composer’s characteristic sound world, mixing fellow lyricism and jittery chatter into some scrumptious instrumental writing and, once the piece gets going, some real drama too.
Fox (after a Braque painting and “foxing" of books) is less beholden to Modernist manners. This attentive performance conducted by Bruce Knuckles, offered ample proof of Hoyland’s achievements: sharp eared as the animal after which the piece is emphatically not named and, in its final pages, highly moving, as well as elegantly wrought.