Britten & Jackson & Freeman - Flax & Fire (CD)

This debut album from tenor Stuart Jackson and pianist Jocelyn Freeman features a wonderful array of works by Britten, Wolf, Liszt and Robert Schumann. In an intimate recital, Stuart Jackson and Jocelyn Freeman perform songs that examine the themes of passion and longing as though through a series of different lenses, offering the listener an array of perspectives. We hear Britten's witty and subtle music, influenced by Henry Purcell, alongside Hugo Wolf's tender and sensual settings on the theme of unrequited love. Liszt's Petrarch settings continue the theme with songs of inflamed ardour, contrasted with Schumann's music of pure devotion. The recital concludes with a glorious song from short-lived English composer William Denis Browne. "... superbly attentive to the switches in emotional register... Every word compelled attention" - The Times on Stuart Jackson "Brilliant pianism" - MusicWeb International on Jocelyn Freeman