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Your perfect classical playlist

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. This week also sees the start of a new weekly feature in which Georgia chooses a favourite recording from a vintage collection of vinyl LPs.

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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13 days left to listen

3 hours, 30 minutes

Music Played

  • Edvard Grieg

    In the Hall of the Mountain King (Peer Gynt - suite no.1 Op.46)

    Orchestra: Berlin Philharmonic. Conductor: Herbert von Karajan.
    • DG.
  • George Enescu

    Piano Quintet in D Major: II. Scherzo

    Ensemble: Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective.
    • Enescu: String Octet, Piano Quintet.
    • Chandos.
    • 106.
  • Henry Purcell

    How happy the lover (King Arthur)

    Choir: VOCES8. Ensemble: Les Inventions.
    • A Purcell Collection.
    • Signum Classics.
    • 5.
  • Sir Stephen Hough

    Nocturne (September 10, 2001)

    Performer: Elisabeth Brauss.
  • Jean Sibelius

    Symphony No. 5 in E-Flat Major, Op. 82: 3rd mvt

    Conductor: Sakari Oramo. Orchestra: City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.
    • Sibelius : Symphony No.5 & Orchestral Works.
    • Warner Classics International.
    • 3.
  • Malcolm Arnold

    The Fairfield, Op. 110

    Orchestra: BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Rumon Gamba.
    • Arnold: Overtures.
    • Chandos.
    • 106.
  • Charlotte Sohy

    Symphony in C sharp minor 'Grand Guerre' (2nd mvt)

    Orchestra: Orchestre national de France. Conductor: Debora Waldman.
    • Compositrices: New Light on French Romantic Women Composers.
    • Bru Zane.
    • 33.
  • François‐Joseph Gossec

    Symphony No. 6 in B flat major: I. Allegro molto

    Orchestra: Württembergisches Kammerorchester Heilbronn. Conductor: Simon Gaudenz.
    • Gossec: Symphonies op. VI.
    • CPO.
    • 208.
  • Arturo Márquez

    Danzón No 2

    Performer: Yuja Wang.
    • The Vienna Recital.
    • DG.
    • 16.
  • Orlande de Lassus

    Missa pro defunctis quinque vocum, LV 963: - IV. Offertorium. Domine Jesu Christe

    Choir: Vox Luminis. Conductor: Lionel Meunier.
    • Ricecar.
  • Luigi Mancinelli

    Carnival (Venetian Scenes, No 1)

    Orchestra: Orchestra sinfonica di Roma. Conductor: Francesco La Vecchia.
    • Mancinelli: Scene veneziane.
    • Naxos.
    • 1.
  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    Violin Sonata in A Major, K. 305: I. Allegro di molto

    Performer: Alina Ibragimova. Performer: Cédric Tiberghien.
    • Mozart: Violin Sonatas Nos. 22, 24, 29 (K. 305, 376 & 402).
    • Hyperion.
    • 9.
  • Johannes Brahms

    Symphony no.3 in F major Op.90 (3rd mvt)

    Orchestra: Chamber Orchestra of Europe. Conductor: Yannick Nézet‐Séguin.
    • Brahms: Symphonies.
    • Deutsche Grammophon.
    • 11.
  • Marc-Antoine Madeleine Désaugiers

    Cadet Buteux au Faubourg du Temple

    Lyricist: Marc-Antoine Madeleine Désaugiers. Singer: Cyrille Dubois. Singer: Jérôme Varnier. Ensemble: Les Lunaisiens. Conductor: Arnaud Marzorati.
    • La Comédie Humaine: Chansons balzaciennes.
    • Alpha Classics.
    • 11.
  • Igor Stravinsky

    The Shrovetide Fair (Petrushka)

    Performer: Katya Apekisheva. Performer: Charles Owen.
    • Stravinsky: Piano Ballets - Petrushka & The Rite of Spring.
    • Quartz Music Ltd.
    • 1.
  • Louis James Alfred Lefébure‐Wély

    Sortie in E flat major

    Performer: Roger Judd.
    • HERALD.
  • Richard Rodgers

    Carousel - you'll never walk alone

    Singer: Joyce DiDonato. Choir: BBC Singers. Choir: BBC Symphony Chorus. Orchestra: BBC Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Marin Alsop.
  • Gustav Mahler

    "Ging heut' Morgen über's Feld" ("I Went This Morning over the Field") (Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen)

    Music Arranger: Arnold Schoenberg. Singer: Roderick Williams. Ensemble: Attacca Quartet. Ensemble: Virginia Arts Festival Chamber Players. Conductor: JoAnn Falletta.
    • Mahler: Songs (Arr. A. Schoenberg).
    • Naxos.
    • 102.
  • Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre

    Suite No 2 in G minor: Sarabande

    Performer: Mishka Rushdie Momen.
    • Hyperion.
  • Antonín Dvořák

    Symphony no.7 in D minor Op.70 (3rd mvt)

    Orchestra: Czech Philharmonic. Conductor: Semyon Bychkov.
    • Pentatone.
  • Doreen Carwithen

    Concerto for Piano and Strings

    Performer: Alexandra Dariescu. Orchestra: Manchester Camerata. Conductor: John Andrews.
    • Resound: Music by British Composers.
    • Resonus Classics.
    • 1.
  • Antonio Vivaldi

    Stabat Mater in F Minor, RV 621: No. 1. "Stabat Mater dolorosa"

    Singer: Andreas Scholl. Orchestra: Accademia Bizantina. Conductor: Alessandro Tampieri.
    • Invocazioni Mariane.
    • Naive.
    • 16.
  • Robert Schumann

    Piano Quartet in E-Flat Major, Op. 47: II. Scherzo. Molto vivace

    Performer: Isabelle Faust. Performer: Antoine Tamestit. Performer: Jean‐Guihen Queyras. Performer: Alexander Melnikov.
    • Schumann: Piano Quartet - Piano Quintet.
    • harmonia mundi.
    • 2.
  • Samuel Coleridge‐Taylor

    Deep river (24 Folk melodies Op.59)

    Performer: Isata Kanneh‐Mason.
    • Summertime.
    • Decca.
  • Samuel Barber

    Agnus Dei (Choral Version of Adagio for Strings, Op. 11a)

    Lyricist: Trad.. Choir: VOCES8.
    • TWENTY.
    • Decca Music Group Ltd..
    • 8.

Broadcast

  • Fri 11 Sep 202609:30