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Celebrating classical greats

Georgia Mann plays the best classical music for your morning, 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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29 days left to listen

3 hours, 30 minutes

Last on

Yesterday09:30
BBC Radio 3

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Music Played

  • Malcolm Arnold

    4 English dances - set 2 Op.33 (no.1)

    Orchestra: Philharmonia Orchestra. Conductor: Bryden Thomson.
    • Malcolm Arnold: Dances: Philharmonia, Thomson.
    • Chandos.
    • 5.

  • Pierre Villette

    Hymne à la Vièrge

    Choir: Westminster Cathedral Choir. Conductor: James O’Donnell.
    • HYPERION.

  • George Frideric Handel

    Organ Concerto in F major, HWV 295, 'The Cuckoo and the Nightingale'

    Performer: Bob van Asperen. Orchestra: Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.
    • Virgin.

  • William Walton

    Orb and Sceptre - coronation march

    Orchestra: Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Andrew Litton.
    • Walton: The Centenary Edition: Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra/Litton.
    • Decca.
    • 18.

  • Anna Clyne

    Color Field: III. Orange

    Conductor: Marin Alsop. Orchestra: Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.
    • Anna Clyne: Abstractions.
    • Naxos.
    • 10.

  • Samuel Coleridge-Taylor

    5 Fantasiestucke Op.5 (Humorseque)

    Ensemble: Takács Quartet.
    • HYPERION.

  • Maurice Ravel

    La Vallée des Cloches (Miroirs)

    Performer: Pierre‐Laurent Aimard.
    • Ravel, The Piano Concertos: Aimard/Cleveland Orchestra/Boulez.
    • Deutsche Grammophon.
    • 9.

  • Orlando Gibbons

    The Silver Swanne

    Performer: Ronald Romm. Performer: Frederic Mills. Performer: David Ohanian. Performer: Eugene Watts. Performer: Charles Daellenbach. Music Arranger: Mark Kroll. Ensemble: Canadian Brass.
    • Canadian Brass: English Renaissance Music.
    • CBS.
    • 3.

  • Franz Schubert

    Symphony No 5 in B flat major, D 485 (4th mvt)

    Orchestra: Les Musiciens du Louvre. Conductor: Marc Minkowski.
    • Naive.

  • Christopher Churcher

    Everything is Going to be All Right

    Performer: Mar Umbert Kimura. Choir: Somerville College Choir, Oxford. Conductor: Will Dawes.
    • Churcher: Moonrise.
    • Resonus Classics.
    • 6.

  • Johannes Brahms

    Hungarian Dance No.2 in D minor

    Orchestrator: Iván Fischer. Orchestra: Budapest Festival Orchestra. Conductor: Iván Fischer.
    • Brahms: Hungarian Dances.
    • Decca.
    • 2.

  • Frank Bridge

    A Sea-Idyll for piano

    Performer: Kathryn Stott.
    • Bridge - PIano Sonata etc Kathryn Stott.
    • Conifer.
    • 2.

  • Anna Clyne

    Color Field: III. Orange

    Conductor: Marin Alsop. Orchestra: Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.
    • Anna Clyne: Abstractions.
    • Naxos.
    • 10.

  • Louise Farrenc

    Overture in E flat major, Op 24

    Orchestra: NDR Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Johannes Goritzki.
    • CPO.

  • George Gershwin

    Piano concerto in F major (2nd mvt)

    Music Arranger: Ferde Grofé. Performer: Jean‐Yves Thibaudet. Orchestra: Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Marin Alsop.
    • Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue & Piano Concerto.
    • Decca.
    • 4.

  • Joseph Haydn

    Symphony no.104 in D 'London' (4th mvt)

    Orchestra: Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra. Conductor: 8 Bit.
    • Haydn Edition.
    • Brilliant Classics.
    • 8.

  • Morton Feldman

    Rothko Chapel (Coda)

    Performer: Karen Phillips. Performer: James Holland. Choir: Gregg Smith Singers. Conductor: Gregg Smith.
    • Sony.

  • Sergey Prokofiev

    March (The Love for Three Oranges)

    Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Antal Doráti.
    • MERCURY LIVING PRESENCE.

  • Miles Davis

    Blue In Green

    • Kind of Blue.
    • Columbia.
    • 3.

  • Grace Williams

    Sailing Song (Sea Sketches, No 2)

    Orchestra: BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: John Andrews.
    • Grace Williams: Orchestral Works.
    • Resonus Classics.
    • 11.

  • Ennio Morricone

    Love Theme from 'Cinema Paradiso'

    Performer: Renaud Capuçon. Orchestra: Brussels Philharmonic. Conductor: Stéphane Denève.
    • Cinéma.
    • Warner Classics.
    • 1.

  • Claudio Monteverdi

    Beatus vir à 6 (Selva morale e spirituale)

    Singer: Emma Kirkby. Singer: Rogers Covey‐Crump. Singer: David Thomas. Choir: Taverner Consort. Ensemble: Taverner Players. Conductor: Andrew Parrott.
    • Vespro della beata Vergine 1610.
    • Warner Classics.
    • 11.

  • Gustav Mahler

    Mahler: Symphony No. 5: IV. Adagietto

    Orchestra: Vienna Philharmonic. Conductor: Andris Nelsons.
    • Mahler: Symphony No. 5.
    • Deutsche Grammophon (DG).

  • Benjamin Britten

    Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes

    Orchestra: BBC Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Sir Andrew Davis.
    • Warner.

  • Benjamin Britten

    Passacaglia from Peter Grimes, Op 33b

    Orchestra: BBC Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Sir Andrew Davis.
    • TELDEC.

  • Ruggero Leoncavallo

    Recitar!... Vesti la giubba'(I Pagliacci)

    Singer: Luciano Pavarotti. Orchestra: National Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Giuseppe Patanè.
    • DECCA.

  • Gabriel Fauré

    Clair de lune

    Performer: Timothy Ridout. Performer: Jonathan Ware. Music Arranger: Timothy Ridout.
    • Alto appassionato.
    • harmonia mundi.
    • 106.

  • Joan Trimble

    Suite for Strings

    Orchestra: Irish Chamber Orchestra. Director: Fionnuala Hunt.
    • Black Box.

  • Johann Sebastian Bach

    Gigue from Partita No 3 in E for solo violin (transcr. for piano by Rachmaninov)

    Performer: Daniil Trifonov. Music Arranger: Sergey Rachmaninov.
    • DG.

  • John Tavener

    The Lamb

    Choir: Tenebrae. Conductor: Nigel Short.
    • Signum.

Broadcast

  • Yesterday09:30
    BBC Radio 3