Vic Hoyland
Composer

UE Press Quotes 2000

2000

Hoyland has been commissioned and performed by most of the leading ensembles in the UK, including Lontano, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, BBC Symphony Orchestra, The Arditti Quartet and many others. He is currently engaged on Qibti, a new large-scale work for orchestra.
Roger Marsh, January 2000

Press Quotes

'Vic Hoyland ... is a very fine composer indeed. It is not simply that he can conjure up some enticing sonorities. What impresses above all is that his abundant intellect and skill is bound to an obvious love of sound as emotional sensation.'
The Times 2.9.85

'A score full of impeccably heard, rigorously composed and imagined ideas, textures and sono-rities.' (Andacht zum Kleinen)
Daily Telegraph 6.2.81

'Hoyland's use of language is electrifying, linguistic gesture raised to the highest power.'
Musical Times May 1982

'More than in any of Hoyland's music I have heard so far, the content and the structure of "Andacht zum Kleinen" are fused; it is also extremely beautiful.'
Financial Times 2.2.83

'This is strangely euphonious music, cast in a free but sophisticated language ... is compellingly expressive.'
The Times 2.9.85

'The ear is seized by the definition and subtlety of the string writing; there is no fumbling here. The argument is tightly woven, the tension unrelenting, the rhythmic energy immense. This is music that sweeps all before it.' (String Quartet)
The Observer 15.9.85

'An engrossingly self-sufficient score of sharp, spare images, tautly pungent rhythms ... and unexpectedly disruptive contrasts of pattern and emphasis.' (Fox)
Daily Telegraph 31.1.84

'Vic Hoyland's "ES" ... was absolutely ravishing; original., beautiful, totally convincing.'
Music and Musicians

'Hoyland deployed his large forces (including seven percussionists) with a well-judged economy and consistency. ... Everything about the 15-minute piece appeared to come off: its overall formulation, ... and its articulation of detail, never fussy or neurotic, but germane to the composer's well-defined purpose.'
Meirion Bowen on Proms 2, 1987

'The dramatic shape is a precise, effective one ... always with its emotional target fixed in its sights. The choice of vocal modes is unerring and the ensemble writing full of ... chracteristically spiky rhythms and brittle, potent sonorities.' (La Madre)
Opera, April 1990