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A classical soundtrack for your morning

Georgia Mann plays the best in classical music, with discoveries and surprises rubbing shoulders with familiar favourites.

Georgia Mann plays the best classical music for your morning, with discoveries and surprises rubbing shoulders with familiar favourites. Including the Playlister challenge: our regular listener-created sequence inspired by a different piece of music each day. Plus a new classical release in focus for Album of the Week.

1000 Playlister starter: listen and send us your ideas for the next step in today's musical journey. Text 83111 or email essentialclassics@bbc.co.uk.

1030 Album of the Week: an exciting new classical release in focus throughout the week.

1115 Playlister reveal: an uninterrupted sequence of music suggested by you in response to today's starter piece.

1200 Feast of a Piece: indulge your ears with an orchestral masterpiece.

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14 days left to listen

3 hours, 30 minutes

Last on

Mon 16 Mar 202609:30
BBC Radio 3

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Music Played

  • Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

    The Sleeping Beauty (Waltz)

    Orchestra: Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Conductor: Antal Doráti.
    • Tchaikovsky: Complete Orchestral Works Vol.2.
    • Philips.
    • 8.

  • Robert Schumann

    Piano Quartet in E flat, Op.47 (3rd mvt)

    Performer: Alexander Melnikov. Ensemble: Jerusalem Quartet.
    • HARMONIA MUNDI.

  • Johann Sebastian Bach

    Cantata No 146 "Wir mussen durch viel Trubsal" (Sinfonia)

    Ensemble: Pygmalion. Director: Raphaël Pichon.
    • ERATO.

  • Elena Kats‐Chernin

    Get Well Rag

    Performer: Sarah Nicolls.
    • Kats-Chernin: Ragtime and Blue.
    • Signum Classics.
    • 401.

  • Eric Whitacre

    Sleep

    Orchestrator: Jim Clements. Choir: VOCES8 Foundation Choir. Orchestra: VOCES8 Foundation Orchestra. Conductor: Barnaby Smith.
    • Voces8.

  • Michel Legrand

    The Go-Between (Original movie sound track); Main title

    Performer: Michel Legrand.
    • Il était une fois Michel Legrand (Bande originale du film).
    • Universal Music Division Decca Records France.
    • 15.

  • Nicola Matteis

    Ground after the Scotch humour (Suite in F major)

    Performer: Pamela Thorby. Ensemble: Palladian Ensemble.
    • An Excess of Pleasure & The Winged Lion: Palladian Ensemble.
    • Linn.
    • 23.

  • William Vincent Wallace

    Maritana - overture

    Orchestra: RTÉ Concert Orchestra. Conductor: Proinnsías Ó Duinn.
    • Naxos.

  • Gustav Holst

    Hymn to the Dawn (Choral Hymns from the Rig Veda, Op.26'3)

    Music Arranger: Julian Lloyd Webber. Performer: Julian Lloyd Webber. Performer: Jiaxin Lloyd Webber. Performer: Guy Johnston. Performer: Laura van der Heijden. Performer: Catrin Finch.
    • NAXOS.

  • Giuseppe Verdi

    Libiamo ne' lieti calici "Brindisi" (La traviata)

    Singer: Angela Gheorghiu. Singer: Frank Lopardo. Choir: Chorus of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Orchestra: Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Conductor: Georg Solti.
    • Verdi: La Traviata.
    • Decca Music Group Ltd..
    • 3.

  • Giacomo Puccini

    Edgar (Act 1, Prelude)

    Orchestra: Sinfonia of London. Conductor: John Wilson.
    • Puccini: Orchestral Music.
    • Chandos.
    • 113.

  • Giacomo Puccini

    Edgar: Preludio to Act III

    Conductor: John Wilson. Orchestra: Sinfonia of London.
    • Puccini: Orchestral Music.
    • Chandos.
    • 114.

  • Grace Williams

    Breakers (Sea Sketches)

    Orchestra: English Chamber Orchestra. Conductor: David Atherton.
    • Grace Williams: Sea Sketches; Fantasia; Carillons; Penillion.
    • Lyrita.
    • 13-17.

  • César Franck

    Symphonic Variations

    Performer: Robert Casadesus. Orchestra: The Philadelphia Orchestra. Conductor: Eugene Ormandy.
    • Franck: Symphony in D Minor / Symphonic Variations: Casadesus.
    • Sony.

  • Thomas Tallis

    If ye love me

    Ensemble: The Gesualdo Six. Director: Owain Park.
    • English Motets.
    • Hyperion.
    • 5.

  • Georg Philipp Telemann

    Overture (Suite) (TWV.55:D6) in D major (Ouverture)

    Orchestra: Le Concert des Nations. Director: Jordi Savall.
    • Le Concert Spirituel - Au Temps de Louis XV: Le Concert Des Nations, Jordi Saval.
    • Alia Vox.

  • Isaac Albéniz

    Asturias (Suite espanola no.1 Op.47)

    Music Arranger: Jarle Storlokken. Performer: Tine Thing Helseth. Performer: tenThing.
    • tenThing.
    • EMI Classics.
    • 2.

  • Johann Sebastian Bach

    Prelude and Fugue in F minor, BWV.881 (Book 2, The Well-Tempered Clavier)

    Performer: Angela Hewitt.
    • Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier: Angela Hewitt.
    • Hyperion.
    • 7.

  • Richard Rodney Bennett

    Far from the Madding Crowd: Prelude

    Orchestra: The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Kenneth Alwyn.
    • SILVA SCREEN RECORDS.

  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    Le nozze di Figaro, K.492: Act 4; L'ho perduta... me meschina!

    Singer: Rosl Schwaiger. Orchestra: Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin. Conductor: Ferenc Fricsay.
    • Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro.
    • Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd..

  • Pino Donaggio

    Don't Look Now; music from the film

    Orchestra: Studio Orchestra.
    • Don't Look Now (Original Film Soundtrack).
    • Silva Screen Records Ltd.
    • 16.

  • Jean Sibelius

    At the Castle Gate; Entr'acte (Pelléas et Mélisande)

    Orchestra: Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Neeme Järvi.
    • BIS.

  • Edvard Grieg

    Peer Gynt's Homecoming (Peer Gynt Suite No 2, Op 55)

    Orchestra: Oslo Philharmonic. Conductor: Esa‐Pekka Salonen.
    • SONY.

  • Jóhann Jóhannsson

    Ruslpóstur

    Performer: Alice Sara Ott.
    • Jóhann Jóhannsson: Piano Works.
    • Deutsche Grammophon (DG).
    • 7.

  • Jóhann Jóhannsson

    Melodia

    Performer: Alice Sara Ott.
    • Jóhann Jóhannsson: Piano Works.
    • Deutsche Grammophon (DG).
    • 9.

  • Charles Villiers Stanford

    On Time, Op.142

    Ensemble: Tenebrae. Conductor: Nigel Short.
    • Music Of The Spheres.
    • Signum.
    • 16.

  • William Grant Still

    Prelude (2nd mvt)

    Performer: Alexa Still. Performer: Michael Steer. Performer: Susan DeWitt Smith. Ensemble: New Zealand String Quartet.
    • KOCH.

  • Aram Khachaturian

    Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia (Spartacus)

    Orchestra: Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Yuri Temirkanov.
    • EMI.

  • Nigel Hess

    Piano Concerto

    Performer: Lang Lang. Orchestra: London Chamber Orchestra. Conductor: Christopher Warren‐Green.
    • Hess: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, Lang Lang.
    • UCJ.
    • 1.

  • Elmer Bernstein

    The Great Escape - Main Title

    Orchestra: Royal Scottish National Orchestra.
    • RYKO.

  • Nainita Desai

    My Mind is Still

    Performer: Thomas Gould. Performer: Leif Kaner‐Lidström. Performer: Elsa Bradley. Music Arranger: Geoff Lawson. Choir: VOCES8.
    • Infinity.
    • Decca Music Group Ltd..
    • 12.

  • Sergei Rachmaninov

    Symphony no.2 in E minor Op.27 (3rd mvt)

    Orchestra: Berliner Philharmoniker. Conductor: Kirill Petrenko.
    • Berlin Philharmonic.

Broadcast

  • Mon 16 Mar 202609:30
    BBC Radio 3