Main content

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.

To listen on most smart speakers, say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Essential Classics”.

16 days left to listen

3 hours, 30 minutes

Last on

Mon 14 Sep 202609:30
BBC Radio 3

More episodes

Previous

Your perfect classical playlist

Next

The best classical morning music

See all episodes from Essential Classics

Music Played

  • Maurice Ravel

    Menuet antique

    Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Claudio Abbado.
    • EMI.

  • Isabella Leonarda

    Sonata duodecima (1st mvt)

    Ensemble: Bizzarrie Armoniche.
    • Naive.

  • Zoltán Kodály

    Dances of Marosszek

    Orchestra: Budapest Festival Orchestra. Conductor: Iván Fischer.
    • HUNGAROTON.

  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    Symphony no.41 in C major K.551 'Jupiter' (4th mvt)

    Orchestra: Aurora Orchestra. Conductor: Nicholas Collon.
    • Music of the Spheres.
    • Deutsche Grammophon.
    • 4.

  • Anna Clyne

    Abstractions: V. Three (Inspired by Brice Marden's 3, 1987-88)

    Orchestra: Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Marin Alsop.
    • Anna Clyne: Abstractions.
    • Naxos.
    • 106.

  • Gabriel Pierné

    Scherzo-caprice

    Performer: Stephen Coombs. Orchestra: BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Ronald Corp.
    • Pierne: The Complete Works for Piano and Orchestra: Stephen Coombs, BBCSSO, Corp.
    • Hyperion.

  • Giovanni Gabrieli

    Canzon duodecimi toni à 8 (Sacrae symphoniae, 1597)

    Ensemble: Oltremontano. Director: Wim Becu.
    • Accent.

  • Joseph Haydn

    Cello Concerto no.1 in C major H.7b.1 (1st mvt)

    Performer: Alisa Weilerstein. Ensemble: TrondheimSolistene.
    • Pentatone.

  • William Grant Still

    Three Songs (Arr. for Flute and Guitar by James Girling): No. 1, Bayou Home

    Ensemble: Meraki Duo.
    • Notes from the Living Room.
    • Delphian Records.
    • 1.

  • George Enescu

    Romanian Rhapsody No 2 in D major

    Orchestra: Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Lawrence Foster.
    • APEX.

  • Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber

    Fidicinium sacro-profanum (Sonata No 11 in C minor)

    Ensemble: Purcell Quartet.
    • Biber: Sacro-Profanum: The Purcell Quartet.
    • Chandos.
    • 17.

  • Edvard Grieg

    Wedding Day at Troldhaugen (Lyric Pieces Op.65 Bk 8)

    Performer: Leif Ove Andsnes.
    • Grieg: Lyric Pieces.
    • Warner Classics.
    • 19.

  • Giacomo Puccini

    Capriccio sinfonico

    Orchestra: Sinfonia of London. Conductor: John Wilson.
    • Puccini: Orchestral Music.
    • Chandos Records Ltd.
    • 2.

  • Bedrich Smetana

    On the Seashore, Op.17

    Performer: Leif Ove Andsnes.
    • EMI.

  • Morton Feldman

    Rothko Chapel (Coda)

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

  • Ottorino Respighi

    Trittico botticelliano for small orchestra [complete] - La Nascita di Venere

    Orchestra: Argo Chamber Orchestra. Conductor: László Heltay.
    • Decca Eloquence.

  • Johannes Brahms

    Symphony no.2 in D major Op.73 (4th mvt)

    Orchestra: Chamber Orchestra of Europe. Conductor: Yannick Nézet‐Séguin.
    • Brahms: Symphonies.
    • Deutsche Grammophon.

  • Ludovico Einaudi

    Jay

    Performer: Ludovico Einaudi.
    • The Summer Portraits Live.
    • Decca Records.
    • 6.

  • Louise Bertin

    Fausto (Overture)

    Orchestra: Les Talens Lyriques. Director: Christophe Rousset.
    • Louise Bertin: Fausto.
    • Bru Zane.
    • 1.

  • Franz Schubert

    Ellens Gesang 3 (Ave Maria)

    Performer: Christopher Glynn. Singer: Ailish Tynan.
    • SIGNUM.

  • Dmitry Shostakovich

    Concerto for Piano, String Orchestra and Trumpet, No. 1, Op. 35

    Performer: Maria Meerovitch. Performer: Sergei Nakariakov. Orchestra: German Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Pietari Inkinen.
    • Shostakovich: Chamber Symphonies & Concerto For Piano, String Orchestra and Trum.
    • SWR music.
    • 06.

  • Barbara Strozzi

    Le tre Grazie a Venere

    Singer: Jolle Greenleaf. Singer: Molly Quinn. Singer: Virginia Warnken. Performer: Josh Lee. Performer: Jeffrey Grossman.
    • Avie AV2326.
    • Avie.
    • 2.

  • William Walton

    'Spitfire' prelude and fugue for orchestra - concert version

    Orchestra: Academy of St Martin in the Fields. Conductor: Neville Marriner.
    • Walton: Sir William Walton's film music Vol.2: Academy of St. Martin in the Fiel.
    • Chandos.
    • 1-2.

  • Jean Sibelius

    Spring song Op.16 for orchestra

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

  • Johann Sebastian Bach

    Two-part Invention in D minor, BWV 775

    Performer: Janine Jansen. Performer: Maxim Rysanov.
    • DECCA.

  • Christoph Willibald Gluck

    Dance of the Blessed Spirits (Orfeo ed Euridice)

    Orchestra: Orchestre de l’Opéra de Lyon. Conductor: Sir John Eliot Gardiner.
    • EMI.

Broadcast

  • Mon 14 Sep 202609:30
    BBC Radio 3