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MERIDIAN RECORDS are the original experts in ‘natural sound recordings’. Over thirty years ago, 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 two 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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CDE84586 Primrose Piano Quartet - Maxwell-Davies - Burns

Often chamber music, and particularly piano quartets, appear early in a composer's career, well before the symphonies and operas. Not so with Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, who in his Indian Summer turned first to writing string quartets, and then in 2007 this substantial six movement piano quartet. Alternating Jigs and Airs, the fifth movement in particularmaintains his reputation for virtuoso writing, and is a tour de force for the pianist. More Scottish Jigs and Airs in the remarkable multiple variations contributed by ten composers on an Air by Burns--a lament for the seven brave sons of a grey-haired old man, lost in the Jacobite wars and now buried in his yard. Multiple Variations have a great history, from Diabelli through to six variations marking the opening of the Severn Bridge, and this piece is a mini masterpiece in the form. Leaving Scotland, but not folk music, Smirnov's Quintet("Trout"forces) uses Russian folk music in the manner of Stravinsky, and completes a disc offering first recordings of accessible contemporary music, deeply rooted in tradition.

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CDE 84589 - PORTRAIT - A selection of works for Cello & Piano

Stjepan Hauser - Cello - Yoko Misumi - Piano

“Isserlis, Maisky or Du Pre. The young, dynamic Croatian Stjepan Hauser certainly fits the mould.” “Fiercly romantic” - The Times

Revered by the national press as being “attractively fantastical” and a “mesmerising Croatian”, Stjepan Hauser has already performed in the biggest venues in Europe, as the soloist with many orchestras in the UK and abroad. Together with fellow Greenwich Trio member Yoko Misumi, they have recorded an utterly beautiful collection of pieces from some of the most renowned composers from around Europe and Russia. This exciting duo have brought a new lease of life to the music of Faure, Boccherini, Rachmaninov, Popper, Ligeti and Brahms, that will most certainly make the whole of the classical music world sit up and take notice as well as hopefully fascinate and inspire young people into the genre and/or decide to pick up an instrument.

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CDE 84568 Horn Quest
Alon Reuven - French Horn,
Keren Hadar - Soprano,
Yoni Farhi - Piano

Robert Schumann (1810-1856) - Adagio and Allegro, opus 70

Vincent Persichetti (1915-1987) - Parable for Solo Horn, op.120
Franz Schubert (1797-1828) - Auf dem Strom for Voice, Horn and Piano, op.posth.119, D943
Yehezkel Braun (b. 1922) - Sonata for Horn and Piano (1969)
Benjamin Britten (1913-1977) - Canticle III, "Still Falls the Rain", for Voice, Horn and Piano, op.55
Paul Hindemith (1895-1963) - Sonata for Horn and Piano (1939)
"This disk's name reflects the idea which it is based upon: a quest, a journey to the boundaries of the listener's understanding of emotion, musical expression and style. For us – two players and one singer, "Hornquest " was a wonderful opportunity to be challenged and explore our artistic abilities – emotion, musical expression and style…."

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CDE 84581 A Touch of France - Clarinet works

We are delighted to announce the release of “A Touch of France” by the young and extremely talented clarinettist Anna Hashimoto, with pianist Daniel Smith.

The album opens with Lovreglio's virtuosic paraphrase on Verdi's La Traviata, an exquisite Italian opera based on a French story, followed by Le Tombeau de Ravel, which Australian composer Arthur Benjamin wrote using the style of the French composer Maurice Ravel. The next three works by Debussy, Poulenc and Saint-Saëns are very important French repertoire for clarinettists and classical music lovers alike. Debussy's Petite Piece is a lovely miniture encore piece, and the sparkling variations on Carnival of Venice by Cavallini closes this album with a real sense of joy and excitement.
We have uploaded a clip from the recording session onto our Youtube page.

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CDE 84583 My Own Country - Jane Manning & Jane's Minstrels

Iconic soprano Jane Manning formed her ensemble Jane's Minstrels in the late 1980s from some of the finest of the new young generation of instrumentalists.
Their latest CD, MY OWN COUNTRY, characteristically displays the quality and sheer breadth of style which can be found in English music between 1900 and 1930. Earliest of the pieces, Ethel Smyth's Four Songs, owes its debt to late 19th century German romanticism and the French music of it time, but reveals a surprising expressive independence and strength of utterance. Quilter's Pastoral Songs, although discreetly conservative in idiom, are poignant in expression and exquisitely crafted.
The Warlock songs, arranged by Anthony Payne, whose reputation was enhanced in the 1990s by his completion of Elgar's unfinished Third Symphony, range from a romantic impressionist pastoralism to pungent dissonance. Bridge's remarkable Rhapsody Trio also declares an allegiance with European modernism, and can be seen as one of the finest chamber pieces of its time, inhabiting an uneasy, spectral world of great intensity.

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CDE 84584/5-2 Richard Strauss - Primrose Piano Quartet 2CDs

We are thrilled to announce the release of The Primrose Piano Quartet’s third recording, a double album of chamber music by a true giant of the composing world: Richard Strauss.

This Double CD unites by far the three most significant works in Richard Strauss's Chamber Music output. The Piano Quartet remains a relative rarity in the catalogue, and although the Violin and 'Cello Sonatas often feature on recital discs for those instruments, it is the coupling of these significant works that is notable. From the relative clarity of texture and form in the 'Cello Sonata, movements become longer and more complex, and the piano writing considerably more orchestral, as Strauss's style develops through the Quartet and into the Violin Sonata. Contemporary with the early songs, but before the explosion of Tone Poems and Opera, these recordings speak of the domestic chamber music of the young Strauss in Munich, with his musical friends and inspirations of the time, not least among them the delectable Dora Wihan. A golden opportunity for those that love Strauss, but may not be familiar with his chamber music.

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CDE 84537 Chopin The 3 Piano Sonatas

Since his highly acclaimed Royal Festival Hall concerto debut, London-born pianist Louis Demetrius Alvanis has established an international career and a reputation as a musician of outstanding brilliance and sensitivity. He performs throughout Europe, the UK, and in the USA every season, in addition to regular London appearances where he has played solo recitals in the major concert halls such as the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Wigmore Hall and the Barbican Hall. Coinciding with the bicentenary of Chopin’s birth, this recording features the Three Piano Sonatas.The CD opens with the rarely played Sonata in C minor Op.4, which Chopin composed when he was just eighteen, going through to the Sonata in B flat minor Op. 35 featuring the famous “Funeral March”, followed by the powerful B minor Sonata Op. 58 with its Finale of dazzling pyrotechnics. Louis Demetrius Alvanis has performed the music of Chopin in Poland on many occasions in venues such as the Ostrogski Palace in Warsaw for the International Federation of Chopin Societies, the Powsin International Piano Festival, Chopin’s birthplace in Zelazowa Wola, and an open air all-Chopin recital under the Chopin Monument at the Lazienki Park in Warsaw.

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CDE 84571 Virtuoso Double Bass - vol. 2

This is Volume 2 of the Italian composer Giovanni Bottesini's outstanding works for double bass and piano, performed by the much acclaimed duo Leon Bosch and Sung-Suk Kang. Nicknamed the ‘Paganini of the double bass’ for his ability to astonish audiences with his virtuosic performances, Bottesini’s works have remained some of the most dramatic but - because of their difficulty - rarely heard in the repertoire even today. Following directly in Bottesini’s footsteps, the virtuoso double bass player Leon Bosch has rapidly established an international reputation as one of the foremost advocates for the ‘Cinderella of instruments' and as a passionate interpreter of the works of Bottesini. The first CD, released in 2007, won the pair much praise from reviewers and fans alike, leading to broadcasts on BBC Radio 3 & 4 and Classic FM, as well as a string of important concerts at prestigious venues across the world. This is the fourth recording on the Meridian label of pianist Sung-Suk Kang united with the ever-popular South African Leon Bosch, and their combined chemistry and passion, demonstrates Bottesini at its very best - dramatic, intense, and powerful.

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