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Great classical music 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 a masterpiece.

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29 days left to listen

3 hours, 30 minutes

Last on

Today09:30
BBC Radio 3

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Music Played

  • Aram Khachaturian

    Mazurka (Masquerade)

    Orchestra: Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Conductor: Neeme Järvi.
    • Chandos.

  • Joby Talbot

    Transit of Venus

    Orchestra: Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Christopher Austin.
    • Wayne McGregor: Collaboration.
    • Mercury Classics.
    • 12.

  • Max Bruch

    String Quintet in A minor (1st mvt)

    Ensemble: WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne Chamber Players.
    • Alpha.

  • Johann Strauss II

    Tales from the Vienna Woods - Waltz, Op 325

    Orchestra: Vienna Philharmonic. Conductor: Daniel Barenboim.
    • New Year's Concert 2014 / Neujahrskonzert 2014.
    • Sony Classical.
    • 9.

  • Ronald Binge

    The Water Mill

    Performer: Ruth Scott. Orchestra: The New London Orchestra. Conductor: Ronald Corp.
    • British Light Music Classics: New London Orchestra/Ronald Corp.
    • Hyperion.
    • 8.

  • Alberto Ginastera

    Malambo (Estancia Op.8a)

    Orchestra: Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Gustavo Dudamel.
    • 111 Years Of Deutsche Grammophon The Collector's Edition Vol.2.
    • Deutsche Grammophon.
    • 1.

  • Georg Philipp Telemann

    Concerto in A minor for recorder, 2 violins and continuo

    Ensemble: Florilegium.
    • Channel Classics.

  • Dobrinka Tabakova

    Arise Lord into Thy rest

    Choir: The Sixteen. Conductor: Harry Christophers. Singer: Julie Cooper.
    • Coro.

  • Malcolm Arnold

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

    Orchestra: London Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Malcolm Arnold.
    • Malcolm Arnold: English, Irish, Scottish & Cornish Dances: LPO/Arnold.
    • Lyrita.
    • 5.

  • Astor Piazzolla

    Whisky

    Ensemble: duettango.
    • Big Round Records.

  • Sergey Rachmaninov

    The Sea and the Seagulls (5 Etudes Tableaux)

    Orchestrator: Ottorino Respighi. Orchestra: BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Gianandrea Noseda.
    • NOSEDA, Gianandrea: Rossiniana ETC.
    • CHANDOS.
    • 9.

  • Ronald Binge

    The Watermill

    Performer: Ruth Scott. Orchestra: New London Orchestra. Conductor: Ronald Corp.
    • British Light Music Classics: New London Orchestra/Ronald Corp.
    • Hyperion.
    • 8.

  • Liza Lehmann

    If no one ever marries me (The Daisy Chain)

    Performer: Steuart Bedford. Singer: Janice Watson.
    • Collins.

  • Liza Lehmann

    The Wren (Birdsongs)

    Singer: Janice Watson. Performer: Steuart Bedford.
    • Naxos.

  • Alexander Borodin

    Polovtsian dances (Prince Igor)

    Orchestra: New York Philharmonic. Conductor: Leonard Bernstein.
    • SONY CLASSICAL.

  • Johannes Brahms

    Rhapsody in E flat major, Op. 119 No. 4

    Performer: Emanuel Ax.
    • Brahms: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 2, 2 Rhapsodies, Op. 79, 3 Intermezzos, Op. 1.
    • Sony Classical.
    • 6.

  • Stephen Sondheim

    A little night music; The Miller's Song

    Singer: D. Jamin-Bartlett. Orchestra: Studio Orchestra.

  • Michel Legrand

    The Windmills of Your Mind

    Music Arranger: Michail Tsygutkin. Ensemble: The 12 Cellists of the Berlin Philharmonic.
    • As Time Goes By.
    • Warner Classics.
    • 113.

  • Ralph Vaughan Williams

    4 Poems by Fredegond Shove: The Water Mill

    Performer: Iain Burnside. Singer: Roderick Williams.
    • Vaughan Williams: Songs of Travel / The House of Life (English Song, Vol. 14).
    • Naxos.
    • 4.

  • Manuel de Falla

    Miller's Dance (The Three-Cornered Hat)

    Orchestra: Spanish National Orchestra. Conductor: Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos.
    • EMI.

  • Erik Satie

    Gymnopédie No 1 in D major

    Orchestrator: Claude Debussy. Orchestra: Orchestre national de France. Conductor: Georges Prêtre.
    • Dukas/Debussy/Satie/Saint-Saens/Ravel: Orchestre National de France/Pretre.
    • EMI.
    • 4.

  • William Grant Still

    Prelude for flute, string quintet and piano

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

  • Johann David Heinichen

    Ouverture for 2 Oboes, Strings and Basso Continuo in G Major, S.205: II. Air

    Performer: Susanne Wettemann. Performer: Amanda Tauriņa. Conductor: Reinhard Goebel. Orchestra: Neues Bachisches Collegium Musicum.
    • The Leipzig Collegium Musicum Vol. 1: Music before Bach.
    • Pentatone.
    • 106.

  • Johann David Heinichen

    Ouverture for 2 Oboes, Strings and Basso Continuo in G Major, S.205: IV. Air

    Performer: Susanne Wettemann. Performer: Amanda Tauriņa. Conductor: Reinhard Goebel. Orchestra: Neues Bachisches Collegium Musicum.
    • The Leipzig Collegium Musicum Vol. 1: Music before Bach.
    • Pentatone.
    • 108.

  • Johann David Heinichen

    Ouverture for 2 Oboes, Strings and Basso Continuo in G Major, S.205: VI. Air vis

    Performer: Susanne Wettemann. Performer: Amanda Tauriņa. Conductor: Reinhard Goebel. Orchestra: Neues Bachisches Collegium Musicum.
    • The Leipzig Collegium Musicum Vol. 1: Music before Bach.
    • Pentatone.
    • 110.

  • Edvard Grieg

    Ave Maris Stella

    Choir: Norwegian Soloists' Choir. Conductor: Grete Pedersen.
    • BIS.

  • Arthur Sullivan

    The Yeomen of the Guard (Overture)

    Orchestra: Pro Arte Orchestra. Conductor: Malcolm Sargent.
    • Gibert & Sullivan: Yeomen of the Guard: Sargent.
    • EMI Classics.
    • 1.

  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    Piano Concerto No. 20 in D Minor, K. 466

    Performer: Leif Ove Andsnes. Orchestra: Mahler Chamber Orchestra.
    • Mozart Momentum - 1785.
    • Sony Classical.
    • 1.

  • Lili Boulanger

    Psaume 129

    Singer: Pierre Mollet. Choir: Chœurs Élisabeth Brasseur. Orchestra: Orchestre Lamoureux. Conductor: Igor Markevitch.
    • Everest.

  • John Philip Sousa

    The Liberty Bell

    Conductor: Elgar Howarth. Ensemble: Philip Jones Brass Ensemble.
    • Sousa Marches.
    • Decca.
    • 11.

  • Hoagy Carmichael

    Stardust

    Performer: Wynton Marsalis. Music Arranger: Bob Freedman. Orchestra: Studio Orchestra. Conductor: Bob Freedman.
    • Resolution to Swing.
    • COLUMBIA.
    • 1.

  • Frédéric Chopin

    Fantasie-impromptu in C sharp minor Op.66

    Performer: Daniil Trifonov.
    • DG.

Broadcast

  • Today09:30
    BBC Radio 3