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A classical soundtrack for your morning

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

Ian Skelly 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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29 days left to listen

3 hours, 30 minutes

Last on

Yesterday09:30
BBC Radio 3

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Music Played

  • Franz Liszt

    La Campanella

    Performer: Daniil Trifonov.
    • Transcendental.
    • Deutsche Grammophon.
    • 8.

  • Bernhard Crusell

    Clarinet Concerto no. 3 in B flat major Op.11 (3rd mvt)

    Performer: Michael Collins. Orchestra: Swedish Chamber Orchestra.
    • Crusell: The Three Clarinet Concertos.
    • Chandos.
    • 9.

  • George Frideric Handel

    Samson, Act 1, 2: 'Total Eclipse'

    Singer: Mark Padmore. Ensemble: The English Concert. Director: Andrew Manze.
    • As Steals The Morn: Handel Arias & Scenes For Tenor.
    • HARMONIA MUNDI.
    • 7.

  • Edward Elgar

    Cello Concerto in E minor, Op 85 (4th mvt)

    Performer: Alisa Weilerstein. Orchestra: Staatskapelle Berlin. Conductor: Daniel Barenboim.
    • DECCA.

  • Joseph Haydn

    Symphony No. 38 in C Major, Hob. 1/38 "Echo": II. Andante molto

    Orchestra: Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra. Conductor: Ádám Fischer.
    • Haydn: The Complete Symphonies.
    • Nimbus Records.
    • 136.

  • Ivo Antognini

    The Angel

    Choir: The Choir Of Trinity College, Cambridge. Singer: Helena Paish. Conductor: Stephen Layton.
    • HYPERION.

  • James MacMillan

    Saxophone Concerto (2. Gaelic Psalm)

    Performer: Amy Dickson. Orchestra: Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Nicholas Carter.
    • Amy Dickson: In Circles.
    • ABC Classic.
    • 7.

  • Antonio Vivaldi

    Violin Concerto, Op.8 No.2 'Summer' (The Four Seasons)

    Orchestra: La Serenissima. Director: Adrian Chandler.
    • AVIE.

  • Astor Piazzolla

    Oblivión

    Performer: Julian Rowlands. Ensemble: Santiago Quartet.
    • Language of the Heart.
    • Arrastre Records.
    • 7.

  • Josquin des Prez

    O mater dei et hominis

    Ensemble: Le Miroir de Musique. Conductor: Baptiste Romain.
    • Ubi caritas. Italian Laude in Early Renaissance.
    • Ricercar.
    • 21.

  • Ludwig van Beethoven

    Symphony no.5 in C minor, Op.67 (1st mvt)

    Orchestra: Budapest Festival Orchestra. Conductor: Iván Fischer.
    • Channel Classics.

  • Mel Bonis

    Flute Sonata in C sharp minor, Op 64 (2nd mvmt, Adagio)

    Performer: Juliette Hurel. Performer: Hélène Couvert.
    • Compositrices à l'aube du XXe siècle.
    • Alpha Classics.
    • 2.

  • Isaías Sávio

    Batacuda

    Performer: Miloš Karadaglić.
    • Latino: Milos Karadaglic.
    • Deutsche Grammophon.
    • 10.

  • Sergei Rachmaninov

    Piano Concerto no.3 in D minor Op.30 (3rd mvt)

    Performer: Yuja Wang. Orchestra: Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Gustavo Dudamel.
    • Deutsche Grammophon.

  • Henry Purcell

    Dido and Aeneas, Z. 626, Act II: Chorus. In Our Deep Vaulted Cell & Echo Dance of the Furies

    Ensemble: Les Arts Florissants. Conductor: William Christie.
    • Purcell: Dido and Aeneas, Z. 626.
    • harmonia mundi.
    • 19.

  • Johann Sebastian Bach

    Overture in the French style, BWV 831 (Echo)

    Performer: Sir András Schiff. Orchestra: Chamber Orchestra of Europe. Director: Sir András Schiff.
    • Piano Masterworks The World's Favourite Piano Classics.
    • Decca.
    • 16.

  • Nikolai Tcherepnin

    Narcisse et Echo, Op 40 (opening)

    Orchestra: Bamberg Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Lukasz Borowicz.
    • Tcherepnin: Prelude to "La princesse lointaine", Op. 4 & Narcisse et Echo, Op. 4.
    • CPO.
    • 2.

  • Jean‐Philippe Rameau

    Pygmalion (Overture)

    Orchestra: Les Talens Lyriques. Director: Christophe Rousset.
    • Rameau: Overtures: Les Talens Lyriques/Rousset.
    • L'Oiseau-Lyre.
    • 13.

  • Giacomo Puccini

    E lucevan le stelle (from Tosca, Act 3)

    Singer: Freddie De Tommaso. Orchestra: Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.

  • Ethel Smyth

    Sonata in A minor Op.7 (4th mvt)

    Performer: Tasmin Little. Performer: John Lenehan.
    • CHANDOS.

  • Johann Sebastian Bach

    St John Passion, Part 1, No. 1 Chorus: Herr, unser Herrscher

    Ensemble: Pygmalion. Conductor: Raphaël Pichon.
    • J.S. Bach: Johannes-Passion, BWV 245.
    • harmonia mundi.
    • 101.

  • Elias Parish Alvars

    Grande fantaisie, Op. 35: IV. Andantino

    Performer: Paola Perrucci.
    • Alvars: Works for Harp.
    • Dynamic.
    • 404.

  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    Piano Concerto No. 12 in A Major, K. 414

    Performer: Jean‐Efflam Bavouzet. Orchestra: Manchester Camerata. Conductor: Gábor Takács‐Nagy.
    • Mozart Piano Concertos 11, 12, & 13.
    • Chandos.
    • 105.

  • Thomas Tallis

    Spem in alium

    Choir: ORA. Conductor: Suzi Digby.
    • Spem in alium. Vidi aquam.
    • harmonia mundi.
    • 1.

  • Samuel Coleridge-Taylor

    Four Characteristic Waltzes (Valse de la reine)

    Orchestra: RTÉ Concert Orchestra. Conductor: Adrian Leaper.
    • Coleridge-Taylor.
    • Marco Polo.
    • 8.

  • Johannes Brahms

    Piano Quintet in F minor, Op 34 (3rd mvt)

    Performer: Yevgeny Sudbin. Performer: Hrachya Avanesyan. Performer: Boris Brovtsyn. Performer: Diemut Poppen. Performer: Alexander Chaushian.
    • BIS.

  • Camille Saint‐Saëns

    Symphony No.3 in C minor, Op.78 'Organ Symphony' (3rd mvt)

    Performer: Olivier Latry. Orchestra: The Philadelphia Orchestra. Conductor: Christoph Eschenbach.
    • Barber, Poulenc, Saint-Saens: The Philadelphia Orchestra, Eschenbach.
    • Ondine.
    • 12.

Broadcast

  • Yesterday09:30
    BBC Radio 3