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The ideal mix of classical music

Ian Skelly plays the best in classical music, with discoveries and surprises rubbing shoulders with familiar favourites.

Ian Skelly 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 [email protected].

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 an orchestral masterpiece.

To listen on most smart speakers say 'Ask BBC Sounds to play Essential Classics'.

3 hours, 30 minutes

Last on

Mon 24 Nov 202509:30
BBC Radio 3

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Music Played

  • George Frideric Handel

    Air with variations, 'The Harmonious Blacksmith' (Suite no. 5 in E major HWV.430)

    Performer: Murray Perahia.
    • Handel/Scarlatti: Murray Perahia.
    • Sony Classical.
    • 4.

  • Josef Suk

    Serenade for Strings in E flat major Op.6 (1st mv)

    Orchestra: Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Mariss Jansons.
    • BR Klassik.

  • Claudio Monteverdi

    Zefiro torna

    Choir: I Fagiolini. Ensemble: Barokksolistene. Director: Robert Hollingworth.
    • CHANDOS.

  • Ludwig van Beethoven

    Piano Trio in C minor Op.1`3 (1st mvt)

    Ensemble: Sitkovetsky Trio.
    • Beethoven: Piano Trios, Vol. 1.
    • BIS.
    • 101.

  • Edvard Grieg

    Holberg suite (Op.40) vers. for string orchestra, 1st mvt Praeludium

    Orchestra: Academy of St Martin in the Fields. Conductor: Neville Marriner.
    • DECCA.

  • Herbert Howells

    Penguinski

    Performer: Howard Shelley. Orchestra: BBC Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Richard Hickox.
    • CHANDOS.

  • Felix Mendelssohn

    Double Concerto for Piano, Violin and Orchestra in D Minor, MWV 04: III. Finale

    • Mendelssohn: Concertos.
    • harmonia mundi.
    • 6.

  • Morten Lauridsen

    Ubi caritas et amor

    Choir: Polyphony. Conductor: Stephen Layton.
    • Lux aeterna & other choral works.
    • Hyperion.
    • 13.

  • Georg Philipp Telemann

    Oboe d'amore Concerto in E minor, TWV.51:e2

    Performer: Albrecht Mayer. Orchestra: Berlin Baroque Soloists. Conductor: Rainer Kussmaul.
    • EMI.

  • Pablo de Sarasate

    Navarra Op.33

    Performer: Nicola Benedetti. Performer: Yume Fujise. Performer: Plínio Fernandes. Performer: Samuele Telari. Performer: Thomas Caroll.
    • DECCA.

  • Mario Castelnuovo‐Tedesco

    Guitar Concerto No.1 in D Major, Op.99: I. Allegretto

    Performer: Kazuhito Yamashita. Orchestra: London Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Leonard Slatkin.
    • Castelnuovo-Tedesco: Guitar Concertos.
    • RCA Red Seal.
    • 1.

  • Jean Sibelius

    Symphony No 3 in C major, Op 52 (1st mvt)

    Orchestra: BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: John Storgårds.
    • Sibelius: Complete Symphonies/Three Late Fragments.
    • CHANDOS.
    • 1.

  • Franz Schubert

    Impromptu in A flat major, D935 no.2

    Performer: Steven Osborne.
    • Schubert: Impromptus D935.
    • Hyperion.
    • 2.

  • Alexander Borodin

    Symphony no.1 in E flat major (2nd mvt)

    Orchestra: Seattle Symphony. Conductor: Gerard Schwarz.
    • Naxos.

  • Claude Debussy

    En blanc et noir (no.3)

    Ensemble: Katia & Marielle Labèque.
    • Stravinsky / Debussy Katia Et Marielle Labeque.
    • KML.

  • Nigel Ogden

    Penguins’ Playtime

    Performer: Kevin Bowyer.
    • NPC.

  • Simon Jeffes

    Perpetuum mobile

    Performer: Penguin Cafe Orchestra.
    • Signs of Life.
    • E.G. Records.
    • 9.

  • Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

    Serenade for Strings, Op 48 (2nd mvt)

    Orchestra: Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Enrique Bátiz.
    • Orchestral Lollipops: Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Enrique Batiz.
    • RPO.
    • 11.

  • Edward Elgar

    Sospiri

    Orchestra: City of London Sinfonia. Conductor: Richard Hickox.
    • British Composers - Elgar, Stanford & Parry.
    • Warner Classics.
    • 9.

  • Mel Bonis

    Sonata in F sharp minor Op.112 for violin and piano: 4th mvt

    Performer: Elena Urioste. Performer: Tom Poster.
    • Chandos.

  • Gerald Finzi

    5 Bagatelles, Op 23 arr Ashmore (Prelude)

    Performer: Robert Plane. Ensemble: Royal Northern Sinfonia. Conductor: Howard Griffiths.
    • Finzi: Clarinet Concertos: Robert Plane/Northern Sinfonia/Griffiths.
    • Naxos.
    • 4.

  • Léo Delibes

    Flower Duet (Lakmé)

    Singer: Joan Sutherland. Singer: Jane Berbié. Orchestra: Monte Carlo Opera Orchestra. Conductor: Richard Bonynge.
    • Great Operatic Duets: Sutherland/Pavarotti/Freni/Horne.
    • Decca.
    • 1.

  • Sergey Prokofiev

    Piano Concerto No 3 in C major, Op 26

    Performer: Martha Argerich. Orchestra: Berliner Philharmoniker. Conductor: Claudio Abbado.
    • 111 Years Of Deutsche Grammophon The Collector's Edition Vol.2.
    • Deutsche Grammophon.

  • George Frideric Handel

    Trio Sonata in G minor, HWV 393, 'Dresden' (4th mvt)

    Performer: Elizabeth Wallfisch. Performer: Anthony Robson. Performer: Richard Tunnicliffe. Performer: Paul Nicholson. Ensemble: Convivium.
    • Handel, Trio Sonatas for Oboe and Violin: Convivium.
    • Hyperion.
    • 26.

  • Samuel Coleridge-Taylor

    Solemn Prelude

    Orchestra: Ulster Orchestra. Conductor: Charles Peebles.

  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    Piano Sonata No 1 in C major, K 279 (1st mvt)

    Performer: Mitsuko Uchida.
    • Mozart: Complete Piano Sonatas: Mitsuko Uchida.
    • Philips.
    • 1.

  • Claude Debussy

    Preludes arranged for Orchestra, Book I L. 117: No. 10 La cathédrale engloutie (

    Orchestrator: Colin Matthews. Conductor: Mark Elder. Orchestra: Hallé.
    • Colin Matthews: The Debussy Preludes & Postlude.
    • Halle Concerts Society.
    • 24.

Broadcast

  • Mon 24 Nov 202509:30
    BBC Radio 3