Gabriel Jackson : A ship with unfurled sails

   in Choir & Organ (Mar, 2013)
This finely executed CD presents ten of Jackson’s works composed between 2003 and 2009, more than half of which are premiere recordings. The settings range from texts by Blake, Rossetti and Doris Kareva (one of Estonia’s leading poets) to Latin Antiphon texts and the Mass. Jackson’s melodic gifts and his references to past composers (for example, the Stravinsky of the Symphony of Psalms et Requiem Canticles, as well as the Tudors) are in ample evidence, as is his debt to medieval music. The Latvian forces under their artistic director serve the composer supremely well, with superb clarity and a well-focused blend that is full of character. Anyone seeking an introduction to …