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MERIDIAN RECORDS are the original experts in ‘natural sound recordings’. In 1977, at a dinner party, our founders presented their vision for an independent classical label that would reproduce the concert-hall experience as closely as possible. Everyone said it would never work. Thirty five years on we hold a clutch of industry awards, including the honour of being the first independent label to win a GRAMOPHONE award, and we continue to astound listeners and artists with our stylish and captivating recordings using our revered ‘natural sound’ technique.

See Our ‘Natural Sound’ Philosophy for more.

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CDE84543 East Empire Light
We worship the Almighty with the most perfect instrument he ever created:- the angelic or human voice. For this reason any instrument in the New Testament liturgy is superfluous, not to say sacrilegious.

The Temple of Holy Wisdom in Constantinople glorifies the matrimony between Heaven and Earth, God and Mankind. All human art contributes to the harmonious jubilation of Theology; above all, vocal music.

The inspired architects of St Sophia's knew the ancient Hellenic secrets of acoustics, which the builders of St Peter's in Rome a thousand years later, had forgotten. This is why the central space of the grand Orthodox Church is devoted entirely to the celebration of the divine Logos, which also became the incarnate music of God. The Byzantine chant reflects the mystery of unselfish love in the Holy Trinity. The chant is a sober echo of the Trinity at the level of sacral music.

I Fecund silence is a musical icon of the Almighty Father as the source.
II The monophonic vocal melody stands for the incarnation of the Son of God, born as the audible glory of the Paternal Silence.
III The Ison represents the Holy Spirit as Parallel Comforter, proceeding from ingenerate silence.

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CDE 84611
Mozart Piano Sonatas - Sung-Suk Kang

Almost every keyboard piece written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) was intended to be played on a then relatively new invention, the fortepiano. Unlike one of its predecessors, the clavichord, this instrument was capable of producing wide levels of 'forte' and 'piano’ but without altering pitch. With its 'cantabile' quality and considering Mozart's passion for the operatic, the piano became the ideal medium through which he could express both this side of his musical identity and his undoubted prowess as a pianist. The term 'sonata' had been widely used in the half century or so before two other giants of the 'Classical' era, C.P.E. Bach (1714-1788) and Joseph Haydn (1732-1809), helped to clearly define it in terms of form and content. For example, the six hundred-plus keyboard sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757) were nearly all one-movement pieces. Other works labelled 'sonata' of the early eighteenth century were often written for a combination of instruments. There was no set number of movements. It wasn't until the early 1770's that Haydn published a three-movement 'sonata for solo piano', following a format historians would later name 'sonata form'. This may explain why Mozart came to the piano sonata comparatively late in 1774, with his K279-284 set, having all ready composed in almost every other genre.

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CDE 84618

Mendelssohn Complete works for String Quartet vol. 1

Maggini Quartet

Susanne Stanzeleit - Violin David Angel - Violin

Martin Outram - Viola Michal Kaznowski - Cello

Meridian is proud to announce a new collaboration with one of the finest British string quartets, the Maggini Quartet. This release features the first disc of a complete Mendelssohn quartet cycle, with the quartets in E minor, Op.44 No.2, F minor, Op.80, and the Capriccio, one of a set of four pieces for string quartet published posthumously.

In the words of that most generous of musical composer critics,
Robert Schumann

“ . . . he [Mendelssohn] is the Mozart of the nineteenth century, the most brilliant musician who most clearly recognises the contradictions of our time and is the first to reconcile them.”

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CDE 84617
The Testimony of Melangell
Music for the Mysteries

We are proud to announce the release of Hanne Tofte Jespersen’s music to the Celtic female saint and mystic Melangell’s magical tale, recorded by the composer’s Scandinavian ensemble Music for the Mysteries. The Danish composer came across Melangell’s fascinating story in Wales in 2007 when author Mike Harris showed his adaptation of the tale to her. Legend as well as history have it that a woman of considerable insight and spiritual power came to settle as a hermit in a remote valley in North Wales around 500 AD and later became a local saint. The author lets Melangell, the Honey Angel, speak across the ages:
Who knows where I come from? Who am I or what I am?
I am the wild woman older than time.
I came over the mist cloaked waters in fulfillment of some ancient wish.

Hanne Tofte Jespersen’s one hour composition is scored for 5 singers, violin, double bass, piano, percussion and with recital integrated in the music. It unfolds the tale in fourteen movements based on motifs and themes which had emerged to her during visualisations and meditations on the script.

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CDE 84609
FERVOR - The music of Luis Jorge González

Fervor features the music of Argentinian-American composer Luis Jorge González. It includes four pieces, City Twilights, Beyond departure, Con Fervor por Buenos Aires, and Sonata Elegíaca, all of which were composed or revised in the last 10 years. Expanding our view, the past few decades have seen González’s compositional style evolve from a masterful use of serial and twelve-tone procedures into a very modern and attractive tonal music. As writer and fellow composer Karl Kroeger stated about González “[He] is a composer of great technical sophistication, but one who is able to communicate with a full range of listeners from the neophyte to the connoisseur.” His distinct ability to draw in listeners from across the spectrum comes from an insistence upon tuneful melodies that are frequently employed over complex rhythms that keep the music alive and vibrant. When discussing his approach to rhythmic structure, the composer readily admits that his music often makes use of highly stylized tango patterns, but that they are just that, stylized versions.

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CDE 84610

Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf

Concerto No.1 for double bass and orchestra, Krebs 171
Concerto No.2 for double bass and orchestra, Krebs 172
Sinfonia Concertante for viola, double bass and orchestra, Krebs 127
Duetto for viola and double bass, Krebs 219

It was for the orchestra at Grosswardein that Dittersdorf engaged the double-bass player Franz Anton Pichelberger whom he had met in Vienna in 1765. Pichelberger must have been an outstanding virtuoso. Within a year or two of his appointment, at a time when even cello concertos were rare, Dittersdorf wrote for Pichelberger not only two technically demanding Double Bass Concertos but also a Sinfonia Concertante for viola and double bass and a Duetto for the same two instruments. How widely these works were adopted beyond Grosswardein we cannot be sure but we do know that Haydn’s bassist in the Esterházy orchestra had copies of the two concertos. Dittersdorf’s own manuscript having disappeared, Sperger’s copies have become the basis of modern editions. His cadenzas for the two concertos are performed in this recording.

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CDE 84613

Ludwig van Beethoven - Piano Trio Op. 70, No. 2 in E flat
Felix Mendlessohn-Bartholdy - Piano Trio C minor, Op. 66

The Greenwich Trio, described by Bernard Greenhouse as the "New Beaux Arts Trio", is formed of pianist Yoko Misumi, Beethoven Society of Europe Top Prize-winner; Lana Trotovsek, a talent unveiled by Ruggiero Riccis at Salzburg Mozarteum; and cellist Stjepan Hauser, one of the last students of Rostropovich and winner of 21 first prizes all over the world. These three phenomenal talents joined forces in August 2006. and since then their breathtaking chamber music making gains the approval of audiences and critics. The trio won number of first prizes in the international chamber music competitions in UK, Belgium and Italy. They are recipients of Solti Foundation Award, Tunnell Trust as well as the winners of Beethoven Society of Europe Chamber Music Competition.

In this recording the Greenwich Trio bring a youthful and an attractive combination of energy and style; sparkle, vitality and glamour to these wonderful piano trios.

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CDE 84614 SONGS NOW

Meridian Records is proud to announce the release of Songs Now - British Songs of the 21st Century. Performed by rising star Paul Carey Jones (baritone) with Ian Ryan (piano), this timely and exciting new CD will give listeners a taste of where songs are right now.

The early twentieth century was a golden age for British Songs but, in later decades, this fell off markedly. Recently, however, there are ever increasing signs that we are on the threshold of another golden age in British Song. As a result, the 2010 Grimsby St Hughs Festival devoted a day to 20th and 21st Century British song. This went so well - especially the new songs - that there was a determination to get the new songs recorded and released and this led to the current CD. This CD therefore brings listeners right up to date with the latest, exciting developments in British song.

The 32 songs on this CD are very diverse but all are accessible in their own ways. The texts used range from settings of e.e. cummings to Japanese Haiku, and from memorial plaques in various British churches to the latest, hot off the press poetry. Melody is in evidence throughout and the atmosphere of the songs range from a moving, poignant stillness to fast and exhilarating raciness.

This CD is an ideal purchase for anyone who loves classical songs and is curious to know what composers today are doing with this endlessly inventive medium..

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