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”
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Music Played
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Percy Grainger
Mock Morris
Orchestra: BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Richard Hickox.- Grainger Edition Vol.6: Orchestral Works.
- Chandos.
- 12.
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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Piano Sonata in F major, K 332 (2nd mvmt, Adagio)
Performer: Alfred Brendel.- Brendel plays Mozart.
- UME - Global Clearing House.
- 8.
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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.
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Barbara Strozzi
Che si puo fare
Performer: Leonardo García Alarcón. Performer: Mariana Flores. Ensemble: Cappella Mediterranea.- Ambronay.
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Arturo Márquez
Danzón no.2
Orchestra: Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Gustavo Dudamel.- Deutsche Grammophon.
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Hildegard von Bingen
O Virtus Sapientiae (O Power of Wisdom)
Music Arranger: Penelope Axtens. Ensemble: Esther Abrami Quintet.- Women.
- Sony Classical/Sony Music.
- 8.
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Camille Saint‐Saëns
Sarabande et rigaudon, Op.93 (Rigaudon)
Orchestra: London Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Geoffrey Simon.- SAINT-SAENS: Volume 1.
- CALA.
- 6.
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Spiritual
Sometimes I feel like a motherless child
Performer: Isata Kanneh‐Mason. Music Arranger: Samuel Coleridge-Taylor.- Summertime.
- Decca Music Group Ltd..
- 17.
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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.
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Anne Cawrse
Songs without words (No 2, Lied)
Ensemble: Benaud Trio.- Women of Note vol 3.
- ABC Classics.
- 2.
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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.
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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.
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William Grant Still
Cumbia y Congo (Danzas de Panama)
Ensemble: Annex Quartet.- Modica.
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Hildegard von Bingen
O Virtus Sapientiae (O Power of Wisdom)
Music Arranger: Penelope Axtens. Ensemble: Esther Abrami Quintet.- Women.
- Sony Classical/Sony Music.
- 8.
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Rachel Portman
Apple Tree
Performer: Rachel Portman.- Ask the River.
- Node Records.
- 7.
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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.
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Aram Khachaturian
Sabre Dance (Gayane)
Orchestra: Vienna Philharmonic. Conductor: Aram Khachaturian.- Decca.
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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..
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Mieczyslaw Karlowicz
Song of love and death (Eternal Songs)
Orchestra: New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Antoni Wit.- Karlowicz: Symphonic Poems 2.
- Naxos.
- 4.
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Hildegard von Bingen
O Virtus Sapientiae (O Power of Wisdom)
Music Arranger: Penelope Axtens. Ensemble: Esther Abrami Quintet.- Women.
- Sony Classical/Sony Music.
- 8.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Joseph Haydn
Cello Concerto No 2 in D major (3rd mvt, Rondo)
Performer: Pieter Wispelwey. Ensemble: Florilegium.- Channel Classics.
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Arthur Honegger
Pacific 231
Orchestra: New York Philharmonic. Conductor: Leonard Bernstein.- Sony.
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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.
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Arnold Bax
Symphony No 3 in C major (2nd mvmt, Lento)
Orchestra: Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Myer Fredman.- ABC Records.
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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..
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Edward Elgar
Serenade for Strings in E minor, Op 20 (3rd mvt, Allegretto)
Orchestra: BBC Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Andrew Davis.- Teldec.
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Camilla de Rossi
Sant'Alessio (Introduction)
Ensemble: Musica Fiorita. Director: Daniela Dolci.- Pan Classics.
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George Enescu
Romanian Rhapsody No 2 in D major
Orchestra: Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Lawrence Foster.- APEX.
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Franz Schubert
Die Vögel (The Birds), D.691
Performer: Joseph Middleton. Singer: Ashley Riches.- A Musical Zoo.
- CHANDOS.
- 2.
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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.
Broadcast
- Yesterday 09:30BBC Radio 3