ASV- www.sanctuaryclassics.com

ASV label has produced many excellent recordings, including British composers and other less familiar composers such as Dohnányi. Their chamber music catalogue is particularly strong, thanks particularly to The Lindsays and Vanbrugh string quartets. Their early music label Gaudeamus has also been very significant in the revival of Renaissance polyphony. The Clerks' Group (under Edward Wickham) has specialised in the music of 15th century Flemish masters such as Ockeghem, Josquin and Obrecht, and The Cardinalls Musick (under Andrew Carwood) made their name specialising in the music of Tudor and Elizabethan composers such as Fayrfax, Ludford and Byrd.

Chandos- www.chandos.net

Chandos Records is one of the largest independent UK record labels and has made its greatest impact in the realm of British music, particularly the symphonic repertoire, where it has recorded many of the major symphonies and large scale choral compositions, and other orchestral works. Composers particularly associated with Chandos include Bax, Vaughan Williams, Dyson and Ireland. Among the label's most notable conductors are Bryden Thomson, who died in 1991, Vernon Handley, and Richard Hickox. Hickox has recorded an amazing number of critically acclaimed CDs in the past ten years which, in addition to British symphonic music includes recordings of masses by Haydn and Hummel. Notable pianists include Howard Shelley, Eric Parkin and Margaret Fingerhut, all of which have produced excellent recordings of British piano music. Chandos is also noted for the outstandingly clear and natural quality of its recordings, particularly during the 1980s when digital recording quality from other labels could be quite disappointing. It is now beginning to reissue many of its important early recordings at mid price.

EMI- www.emiclassics.com

What makes EMI remarkable is its unique back catalogue, including such fantastic artists (mentioning pianists specifically) as Rubinstein, Schnabel, Lipatti and Gieseking. To my mind the company has not exploited their catalogue as well as they should have done. In the modern era EMI have continued to produce excellent recordings, including core repertoire and early music, although the latter (which has included such groups as the Hilliard Ensemble and the Taverner Consort), have tended to fall under the deletion axe far too early.

Hyperion- www.hyperion-records.co.uk

Like Chandos, Hyperion is also one of the largest independent UK record labels, and certainly one of the most successful. Although British music of the last hundred or so years has played an important role, it has also been particularly successful at recording music from earlier centuries, both in Britain and abroad. Hyperion is particularly strong in the fields of choral music (including music of the Renaissance), chamber music, song, piano, and organ music, and has a large stable of outstandingly consistent artists, ensembles and orchestras to rely on. Indeed they seem to have the knack of discovering excellent artists and making the most of them. A particular Hyperion speciality is long running series, including The English Orpheus and The Romantic Piano Concerto, and those dedicated to specific composers such as Simpson, Liszt, Purcell, Victoria and Palestrina. Among Hyperion's vast array of outstanding performers are the pianists Piers Lane, Steven Hough and Marc-André Hamelin, the Choir of Westminster Cathedral, the Binchois Consort, and the Raphael Ensemble, Florestan Trio and Domus chamber groups. Hyperion has now reissued many of its earlier recordings on the budget priced Helios label.

Naxos- www.naxos.com

My first real memory or Naxos was in 1991 when I was looking at a bed-sit in Winchester. To my amazement the landlady had a huge collection of Naxos CDs. Indeed it must have been most of the range at that time, when the label was very much a bugdet label recording cheap and cheerful versions of core repertoire, using Eastern European orchestras and undistinguished conductors and soloists. I ventured into buying Naxos CDs around 1993 with the Kodály Quartet's recordings of Haydn's string quartets, and throughout the 1990s Naxos established themselves as one of the most significant classical record labels  while keeping the price of their CDs amazingly low. Naxos is now an excitingly enterprising label which continues to harvest obscure as well as more familiar repertoire. For example, the Bax symphonies were very much the territory of specialist labels such as Lyrita and Chandos, and yet Naxos made them best sellers. Because of their low price Naxos CDs generally sell in large numbers, and music enthusiasts can experiment more than they would otherwise do with CDs at full or mid price. This has probably been their real success. British music has been a particularly strong part of their catalogue, with such excellent artists as conductor Paul Daniel and the Maggini String Quartet. Naxos are particularly fond of various series, and also aim at fairly comprehensive coverage of well known composers such as Vivaldi and Brahms, and more contemporary composers such as Messiaen, Penderecki and Lutoslawski.