The list of compositions printed in the booklet shows John Jeffreys to be the writer of a large number of works, few, if any, having become widely known. The present disc and a companion offering from the same company should help substantially to bring his music to more general notice; and with familiarity, I would think, should come a generous measure of sympathy. A fellow-feeling is certainly evoked among compatriots of his own generation. He was born after the Great War but is of the age that was brought up in its shadow. The sound of bugles calling from sad shires was never far below the threshold of consciousness. He has a love of the English countryside, and that also runs deep in his music, which may seem to recall Vaughan Williams but is perhaps closer to Gerald Finzi and closer still to Peter Warlock. The songs, of which he is said to have written some 200, have their own distinctive voice, and the style is that of a fastidious man who will neither seek originality for its own sake nor follow the fashion: who will write within the tradition he loves yet reject anything that is crudely obvious or ready-made.
He is deservedly fortunate to have such delightful and sensitive artists as Ian and Jennifer Partridge to perform his songs. These are well written for both voice and piano, the vocal line serving the poem first but also the voice as a singing instrument. The accompaniments fall naturally (I would imagine) beneath the fingers: if not, they are played in a way that makes one think so. The special quality of Partridge’s voice suits the thoughtful restraint of the composer’s expression, most beautifully in his setting of Ivor Gurney’s Severn Meadows, with its ghostly “he that dwells in shadows” and finely sustained pianissimo ending. The recording is clear and well balanced, the accompanying booklet attractively produced.'