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Refresh your morning with classical music

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 [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

Fri 5 Dec 202509:30
BBC Radio 3

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Music Played

  • Camille Saint‐Saëns

    Wedding-cake Op.76

    Performer: Sir Stephen Hough. Orchestra: City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Sakari Oramo.
    • Hyperion.

  • Alexander Glazunov

    Polonaise (Scènes de Ballet Op.52)

    Orchestra: The Moscow Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Alexander Anisimov.
    • The Best of Glazunov.
    • NAXOS.
    • 8.

  • Luise Adolpha Le Beau

    Cello Sonata Op.17 (3rd mvt)

    Performer: Steven Isserlis. Performer: Connie Shih.
    • HYPERION.

  • Johann Sebastian Bach

    Cantata no. 62 BWV.62; 1. Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland (Chorus)

    Choir: Collegium Vocale Gent. Director: Philippe Herreweghe.
    • Harmonia Mundi.

  • Édouard Lalo

    Symphonie espagnole, Op 21 (5th mvt)

    Performer: Jean‐Jacques Kantorow. Orchestra: Orquesta Ciudad de Granada. Conductor: Kees Bakels.
    • Lalo: Symphonie Espagnole: Granada City Orchestra, Kees Bakels.
    • BIS.
    • 11.

  • George Butterworth

    Six Songs from A Shropshire Lad: No. 1, Loveliest of trees

    Orchestrator: Roderick Williams. Conductor: Sir Mark Elder. Orchestra: Hallé.
    • A Shropshire Lad: English Songs Orchestrated by Roderick Williams.
    • Halle.
    • 5.

  • Franz Schubert

    Rondo for Piano Four-Hands in A Major, D. 951

    Performer: Bertrand Chamayou. Performer: Leif Ove Andsnes.
    • Schubert: Four Hands.
    • Warner Classics.
    • 7.

  • Sally Beamish

    In the Stillness

    Choir: Pembroke College Girls' Choir. Director: Anna Lapwood.
    • SIGNUM.

  • Edvard Grieg

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

    Orchestrator: Franz Josef Breuer. Orchestra: BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Jerzy Maksymiuk.
    • Grieg: Peer Gynt, Sigur Jorsalfar.
    • NAXOS.
    • 11.

  • Avril Coleridge-Taylor

    From the Hills

    Orchestra: BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: John Andrews.
    • Avril Coleridge-Taylor: Piano Concerto & Orchestral Works.
    • Resonus Classics.
    • 9.

  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    String Quintet in B flat major, K 174 (1st mvt)

    Performer: Philip Dukes. Ensemble: Nash Ensemble.
    • Mozart: String Quintets; Nash Ensemble, Philip Dukes.
    • Hyperion.
    • 1.

  • John Rutter

    Five Meditations for Orchestra: III. Candlelight

    • All the Stars Looked Down: A John Rutter Celebration.
    • King’s College, Cambridge.
    • 7.

  • Sergey Rachmaninov

    Vocalise

    Performer: Alban Gerhardt. Performer: Markus Becker.
    • Hyperion.

  • Ralph Vaughan Williams

    Symphony No 5 (IV Passacaglia)

    Orchestra: BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Andrew Manze.

  • Ivor Gurney

    5 Elizabethan Songs: III. Under the Greenwood Tree

    Performer: Julius Drake. Lyricist: William Shakespeare. Singer: Paul Agnew.
    • Gurney: Severn Meadows; 5 Elizabethan & Other Songs.
    • Hyperion.

  • Trad.

    Sakura [Cherry Blossoms]

    Music Arranger: Toru Takemitsu. Choir: Shinyukai Choir. Conductor: Shin Sekiya.
    • Takemitsu: Choral Works.
    • Philips.
    • 1.

  • Richard Wagner

    Siegfried, WWV 86C: Forest Murmurs

    Orchestra: New York Philharmonic. Conductor: Zubin Mehta.
    • Wagner: Highlights from "The Ring".
    • Sony Classical.
    • 4.

  • Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

    Serenade for Strings, Op 48 (2nd mvt)

    Ensemble: Scottish Ensemble. Conductor: Jonathan Morton.
    • Linn.

  • Joanna Marsh

    In Winter's House

    Ensemble: The Gesualdo Six. Conductor: Owain Park.
    • Morning Star: Music for Epiphany Down the Ages.
    • Hyperion.
    • 6.

  • Ludwig van Beethoven

    Piano Sonata No. 24 in F Sharp, Op.78

    Performer: Igor Levit.
    • SONY CLASSICAL.

  • Johann David Heinichen

    Concerto à 8 in C major (1st mvt)

    Performer: Pieter Brulleman. Performer: Baldrick Deerenberg. Performer: Sabine d'Hont. Performer: Barbara Karst. Orchestra: Kammerorchester Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. Conductor: Hartmut Haenchen.
    • Christmas Concertos - Kammerochestrer Carl Phillip Emanuel Bach.
    • Sony Classical.
    • 1.

  • Dmitry Shostakovich

    Suite for Jazz Orchestra No. 2, Op. 50b: Waltz 2

    Orchestra: Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France. Conductor: Paavo Järvi.
    • Ballets russes.
    • Parlophone (France).
    • 9.

  • Francis Poulenc

    Les Biches - suite

    Orchestra: RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Jean-Luc Tingaud.
    • NAXOS.

  • Erich Wolfgang Korngold

    Der Schneemann: Serenade

    Orchestra: Bruckner Orchester Linz. Conductor: Caspar Richter.
    • Korngold: Sursum corda; Baby Serenade; Interlude.
    • Decca (UMO).
    • 9.

  • Antonio Vivaldi

    Mandolin Concerto in C Major RV 425: I. Allegro

    Performer: Raffaele La Ragione. Ensemble: Il Pomo d’Oro. Conductor: Francesco Corti.
    • Mandolin on Stage.
    • Arcana.
    • 1.

  • Hiromi

    Pendulum

    Performer: Hiromi.

  • Ulysses Kay

    Concerto for Orchestra; 1st mvt

    Orchestra: Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Conductor: Kellen Gray.
    • Linn.

  • Richard Storrs Willis

    It came upon the midnight clear

    Music Arranger: Benedict Sheehan. Choir: Skylark. Conductor: Matthew Guard.
    • A Christmas Carol.
    • Arlos Records.
    • 130.

  • Joseph Haydn

    String quartet in E flat major, Op 76 No 6 (finale)

    Ensemble: London Haydn Quartet.
    • Joseph Haydn - String Quartets Op 76.
    • Hyperion.
    • 12.

  • Arturo Márquez

    Conga del fuego nuevo

    Orchestra: Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Gustavo Dudamel.
    • Gustavo Dudamel: Discoveries.
    • Deutsche Grammophon.
    • 12.

Broadcast

  • Fri 5 Dec 202509:30
    BBC Radio 3