Gentle Passions Music by John Jeffreys - heard by PATRIC STANDFORD '... beautifully paced ...'

John Jeffreys might well attribute his instinctive fondness for melodic lines and rich contemplative gestures to his Welsh parentage, though it all sounds much closer to the very Englishness of a musical environment that would have enveloped one brought up as a choir boy between the wars, singing Tallis and playing Grieg and Grainger arrangements in his piano lessons, whilst surrounded by Elizabethan poets at home.

Song was a natural outlet for his creativity. In this there are unmistakable overtones of, for instance, both Delius and Frank Bridge. One is to the pianist John Fry, with whom Mangeot and Barbirolli would play trios. This is a warm and peaceful tribute that ends with an agonised cry just before its final rest...

JOHN JEFFREYS

DIVINE ART LTD

CITY OF BIRMINGHAM SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

JONATHAN VEIRA

IVOR GURNEY

WALES

UNITED KINGDOM