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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 in classical music, with discoveries and surprises rubbing shoulders with familiar favourites.

1000 Playlist starter – listen and send us your ideas for the next step in our musical journey today.

1030 Song of the Day – harnessing the magic of words, music and the human voice.

1115 Playlist reveal – a sequence of music suggested by you in response to our starter today.

1145 Slow Moment – time to take a break for a moment's musical reflection.

1230 Album of the Week.

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

28 days left to listen

3 hours, 30 minutes

Music Played

  • Percy Grainger

    Mock Morris

    Orchestra: BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Richard Hickox.
    • Grainger Edition Vol.6: Orchestral Works.
    • Chandos.
    • 12.
  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    Piano Sonata in F major, K 332 (2nd mvmt, Adagio)

    Performer: Alfred Brendel.
    • Brendel plays Mozart.
    • UME - Global Clearing House.
    • 8.
  • Antonín Dvořák

    Slavonic Dance in C major Op.72 no.7

    Orchestra: Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Conductor: Neeme Järvi.
    • Dvorak: Complete Slavonic Dances: Royal Scottish National Orchestra/Jarvi.
    • Chandos.
    • 15.
  • Barbara Strozzi

    Che si puo fare

    Performer: Leonardo García Alarcón. Performer: Mariana Flores. Ensemble: Cappella Mediterranea.
    • Ambronay.
  • Arturo Márquez

    Danzón no.2

    Orchestra: Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Gustavo Dudamel.
    • Deutsche Grammophon.
  • Hildegard von Bingen

    O Virtus Sapientiae (O Power of Wisdom)

    Music Arranger: Penelope Axtens. Ensemble: Esther Abrami Quintet.
    • Women.
    • Sony Classical/Sony Music.
    • 8.
  • Camille Saint‐Saëns

    Sarabande et rigaudon, Op.93 (Rigaudon)

    Orchestra: London Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Geoffrey Simon.
    • SAINT-SAENS: Volume 1.
    • CALA.
    • 6.
  • Spiritual

    Sometimes I feel like a motherless child

    Performer: Isata Kanneh‐Mason. Music Arranger: Samuel Coleridge-Taylor.
    • Summertime.
    • Decca Music Group Ltd..
    • 17.
  • Georg Philipp Telemann

    Recorder Concerto in C major (4th mvt, Tempo di minuet)

    Performer: Peter Holtslag. Ensemble: Parley of Instruments. Conductor: Peter Holman.
    • Telemann: Recorder Concertos: Peter Holtslag, The Parley of Instruments.
    • Hyperion.
    • 15.
  • Anne Cawrse

    Songs without words (No 2, Lied)

    Ensemble: Benaud Trio.
    • Women of Note vol 3.
    • ABC Classics.
    • 2.
  • Ludwig van Beethoven

    Symphony no.1 in C major Op.21 (4th mvt)

    Orchestra: Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Conductor: Riccardo Chailly.
    • Beethoven: Symphonies 1 & 2: Gewandhouorchester, Riccardo Chailly.
    • Decca.
  • Joseph Canteloube

    La Delaïssádo (Songs of the Auvergne)

    Singer: Kate Royal. Orchestra: Academy of St Martin in the Fields. Conductor: Edward Gardner.
    • Kate Royal.
    • Warner Classics.
    • 5.
  • William Grant Still

    Cumbia y Congo (Danzas de Panama)

    Ensemble: Annex Quartet.
    • Modica.
  • Hildegard von Bingen

    O Virtus Sapientiae (O Power of Wisdom)

    Music Arranger: Penelope Axtens. Ensemble: Esther Abrami Quintet.
    • Women.
    • Sony Classical/Sony Music.
    • 8.
  • Rachel Portman

    Apple Tree

    Performer: Rachel Portman.
    • Ask the River.
    • Node Records.
    • 7.
  • Rued Langgaard

    Behind the wall stand the little roses (Rose Garden Songs, No 2)

    Ensemble: Ars Nova Copenhagen. Conductor: Tamás Vető.
    • Rued Langgaard: Rose Garden Songs.
    • Dacapo.
    • 5.
  • Aram Khachaturian

    Sabre Dance (Gayane)

    Orchestra: Vienna Philharmonic. Conductor: Aram Khachaturian.
    • Decca.
  • Johann Sebastian Bach

    Concerto in the Italian Style, BWV 971 (3rd mvmt, Presto)

    Performer: Alfred Brendel.
    • Bach, J.S.: Italian Concerto, etc..
    • Decca Music Group Ltd..
  • Mieczyslaw Karlowicz

    Song of love and death (Eternal Songs)

    Orchestra: New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Antoni Wit.
    • Karlowicz: Symphonic Poems 2.
    • Naxos.
    • 4.
  • Hildegard von Bingen

    O Virtus Sapientiae (O Power of Wisdom)

    Music Arranger: Penelope Axtens. Ensemble: Esther Abrami Quintet.
    • Women.
    • Sony Classical/Sony Music.
    • 8.
  • George Frideric Handel

    Thrice bless'd be the King (Solomon)

    Singer: Joan Rodgers. Singer: Carolyn Watkinson. Orchestra: English Baroque Soloists. Conductor: Sir John Eliot Gardiner.
    • Handel: Solomon.
    • Decca Music Group Ltd..
    • 23.
  • Tan Dun

    Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

    Performer: Xieyang Chang. Performer: Shanghai Municipal Committee Band. Performer: Shanghai Chinese Orchestra. Performer: Yo‐Yo Ma.
    • Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - OST.
    • Sony Classical.
    • 1.
  • Gustav Mahler

    Lob des hohen Verstandes (Des Knaben Wunderhorn)

    Singer: Thomas Quasthoff. Orchestra: Berliner Philharmoniker. Conductor: Claudio Abbado.
    • The Art of Thomas Quasthoff.
    • UME - Global Clearing House.
    • 137.
  • Joseph Haydn

    Cello Concerto No 2 in D major (3rd mvt, Rondo)

    Performer: Pieter Wispelwey. Ensemble: Florilegium.
    • Channel Classics.
  • Arthur Honegger

    Pacific 231

    Orchestra: New York Philharmonic. Conductor: Leonard Bernstein.
    • Sony.
  • Antonio Vivaldi

    Trio Sonata in G major, RV 820 (7th mvt, Allegro)

    Performer: Federico Maria Sardelli. Ensemble: Modo Antiquo. Director: Federico Maria Sardelli.
    • The Young Vivaldi: RV 820 and other Rare Early Works.
    • Deutsche Harmonia Mundi.
    • 20.
  • Arnold Bax

    Symphony No 3 in C major (2nd mvmt, Lento)

    Orchestra: Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Myer Fredman.
    • ABC Records.
  • Robert Schumann

    Piano Concerto in A minor, Op 54

    Performer: Alfred Brendel. Orchestra: Vienna Philharmonic. Conductor: Sir Simon Rattle.
    • Schumann: Piano Concerto / Brahms: Variations & Fugue on a Theme by Handel (.
    • Decca Music Group Ltd..
  • Edward Elgar

    Serenade for Strings in E minor, Op 20 (3rd mvt, Allegretto)

    Orchestra: BBC Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Andrew Davis.
    • Teldec.
  • Camilla de Rossi

    Sant'Alessio (Introduction)

    Ensemble: Musica Fiorita. Director: Daniela Dolci.
    • Pan Classics.
  • George Enescu

    Romanian Rhapsody No 2 in D major

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

    Die Vögel (The Birds), D.691

    Performer: Joseph Middleton. Singer: Ashley Riches.
    • A Musical Zoo.
    • CHANDOS.
    • 2.
  • Florence Price

    Symphony no.1 in E Minor (3rd & 4th mvts)

    Orchestra: The Philadelphia Orchestra. Conductor: Yannick Nézet‐Séguin.
    • Florence Price: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 3.
    • Deutsche Grammophon (DG).
    • 3.

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