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Refresh your morning with 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

Tue 25 Nov 202509:30
BBC Radio 3

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Music Played

  • Gioachino Rossini

    La danza (Soirées musicales)

    Singer: Roberto Alagna. Orchestra: The London Orchestra. Conductor: Yvan Cassar.
    • Roberto Alagna: My Life is an Opera.
    • Deutsche Grammophon.
    • 6.

  • Ludwig van Beethoven

    String Quartet in C minor, Op 18 No 4 - 1st movement, Allegro, ma non tanto

    Ensemble: Takács Quartet.
    • Decca.

  • Tan Dun

    Eight Memories in Watercolour, Op.1: No.2 Staccato Beans

    Performer: Lang Lang.
    • Lang Lang - Live at Carnegie Hall.
    • DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON.
    • 11.

  • Tan Dun

    Eight Memories in Watercolour, Op.1 (Floating Clouds)

    Performer: Lang Lang.
    • Deutsche Grammophon.

  • Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

    Capriccio espagnol Op.34

    Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Antal Doráti.
    • MERCURY.

  • Ola Gjeilo

    Northern Lights

    Choir: VOCES8.
    • Decca.

  • Lennox Berkeley

    String Serenade - 1st movement, Vivace

    Orchestra: BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Conductor: Richard Hickox.
    • The Berkeley Edition, Volume 1.
    • Chandos.
    • 7.

  • Johann Sebastian Bach

    Süßer Trost, mein Jesus kömmt (No. 1 from BWV 151)

    Singer: Hana Blažíková. Orchestra: Bach Collegium Japan. Conductor: Masaaki Suzuki.
    • BIS.

  • Johannes Brahms

    Intermezzo in E flat minor, Op 118 No 6

    Performer: Murray Perahia.
    • Brahms Handel Variations - Murray Perahia.
    • Sony Classical.
    • 9.

  • William Walton

    Crown Imperial

    Orchestra: Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: André Previn.
    • Walton: Symphony No. 1 And Other Works: Andre Previn/Royal Philharmonic Orchestr.
    • Telarc.
    • 5.

  • Manuel Ponce

    Estrellita [Little star]

    Performer: Nicola Benedetti. Performer: Plínio Fernandes. Performer: Samuele Telari. Performer: Thomas Carroll. Performer: Thomas Carroll. Music Arranger: Paul Campbell. Music Arranger: Paul Campbell.
    • Violin Café.
    • Decca.

  • Sergey Rachmaninov

    Symphonic Dances Op.45 (no.1)

    Orchestra: Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Vasily Petrenko.
    • Rachmaninov: Symphonic Dances, The Isle of the Dead, The Rock.
    • Avie.
    • 1.

  • William Grant Still

    Prelude (2nd mvt)

    Performer: Alexa Still. Performer: Michael Steer. Performer: Susan DeWitt Smith. Ensemble: New Zealand String Quartet.
    • KOCH.

  • Émile Waldteufel

    Les Patineurs, Op 183

    Orchestra: The New London Orchestra. Conductor: Ronald Corp.
    • European light music classics: New London Orchestra/Corp.
    • Hyperion.
    • 8.

  • Gordon Langford

    Rhapsody on Sea Shanties

    Performer: Black Dyke Band. Conductor: Roy Newsome.
    • Morning Cloud: Black Dyke Mills Band/Newsome/Heath.
    • Chandos.
    • 4.

  • Charles Wood

    Hail, gladdening light

    Choir: Choir of Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge. Conductor: Geoffrey Webber.
    • The Anthems of Charles Wood.
    • Priory.
    • 010.

  • Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

    The Sleeping Beauty (Panorama)

    Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: André Previn.
    • Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Nutcracker: LSO, Previn.
    • EMI Classics.
    • 9.

  • Ēriks Ešenvalds

    Stars

    Choir: VOCES8.
    • Lux.
    • Decca.
    • 7.

  • Richard Wagner

    The Ride of the Valkyries (Die Walküre)

    Orchestra: Staatskapelle Dresden. Conductor: Donald Runnicles.
    • Wagner: Der Ring - Orchestral Highlights: Runnicles.
    • Teldec.

  • Mel Bonis

    Soir et matin Op.76

    Ensemble: Trio George Sand.
    • Zig Zag.

  • Robert Ramsey

    Sleep fleshly birth

    Ensemble: Gallicantus. Conductor: Gabriel Crouch.
    • Dialogues of Sorrow: Passions on the Death of Prince Henry, 1612.
    • Signum Classics.
    • 1201.

  • George Frideric Handel

    Music for the Royal Fireworks (Overture)

    Ensemble: Le Concert des Nations. Conductor: Jordi Savall.
    • Alia Vox.

  • Edward Elgar

    Cello Concerto in E minor, Op 85

    Performer: Steven Isserlis. Orchestra: Philharmonia Orchestra. Conductor: Paavo Järvi.
    • Hyperion: CDA68077.
    • Hyperion.
    • 1.

  • Franz Schubert

    Die Taubenpost (No.14, Schwanengesang D957)

    Performer: Iain Burnside. Singer: Roderick Williams.
    • Chandos.

  • Ole Bull

    Herd Girl's Sunday

    Orchestra: Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Paavo Berglund.
    • Warner.

  • Lili Boulanger

    Psaume 129

    Singer: Pierre Mollet. Choir: Chœurs Élisabeth Brasseur. Orchestra: Orchestre Lamoureux. Conductor: Igor Markevitch.
    • Everest.

  • John Williams

    Main Title/Rebel Blockade Runner

    Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: John Williams.
    • Arista.

  • Joseph Haydn

    Trumpet Concerto in E flat (3rd mvt)

    Performer: Alison Balsom. Orchestra: The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen.
    • Haydn; Hummel etc.: Trumpet Concertos.
    • EMI Classics.
    • 6.

Broadcast

  • Tue 25 Nov 202509:30
    BBC Radio 3