This paper studies a linear-quadratic optimal control problem derived by forward-backward stochastic differential equations, where the drift coefficient of the observation equation is linear with respect to the state x, and the observation noise is correlated with the state noise, in the sense that the cross-variation of the state and the observation is nonzero. A backward separation approach is introduced. Combining it with variational method and stochastic filtering, two optimality conditions and a feedback representation of optimal control are derived. Closed-form optimal solutions are obtained in some particular cases. As an application of the optimality conditions, a generalized recursive utility problem from financial markets is solved explicitly.Index terms-Linear-quadratic optimal control, forwardbackward stochastic differential equation, partial information, correlated state and observation noises, closed-form solution, recursive utility.