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The best classical morning music

Georgia Mann plays the best in classical music for your morning, 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 essentialclassics@bbc.co.uk.

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.

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28 days left to listen

3 hours, 30 minutes

Last on

Yesterday 09:30
BBC Radio 3

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Music Played

  • Frederick Delius

    La Calinda (Koanga)

    Ensemble: Academy of St Martin in the Fields. Conductor: Neville Marriner.
    • Delius: Orchestral Works.
    • LONDON.
    • 8.

  • Tomaso Giovanni Albinoni

    Concerto a 5 in C major Op.7`11

    Performer: Anthony Robson. Performer: Catherine Latham. Ensemble: Collegium Musicum 90. Director: Simon Standage.
    • Albinoni: Double Oboe/String Concertos Vol. 2.
    • Chandos.
    • 16-18.

  • Antonín Dvořák

    String Quintet in E flat major Op.97 (4th mvt)

    Ensemble: Jerusalem Quartet. Performer: Veronika Hagen.
    • Dvorak: String Quintet, Op. 97 & String Sextet, Op. 48.
    • harmonia mundi.
    • 108.

  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 9 in E-Flat Major, K. 271: III. Rondeau. Presto

    • Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 6, 8 & 9.
    • Hyperion.

  • Valerie Coleman

    Portraits of Langston (No 6, Harlem's Summer Night)

    Ensemble: McGill / McHale Trio.
    • Portraits: Works for Flute, Clarinet & Piano.
    • Cedille.
    • 12.

  • Domenico Scarlatti

    Sonata in C major Kk.251

    Music Arranger: Sérgio Assad. Performer: Odair Assad. Performer: Sérgio Assad.
    • Nonesuch.

  • Ludwig van Beethoven

    Symphony No.3 "Eroica" Op. 55: I. Allegro con brio

    Conductor: Jordi Savall. Orchestra: Le Concert des Nations.
    • Beethoven: Sinfonia Eroica.
    • Alia Vox.
    • 1.

  • Morten Lauridsen

    Contre qui, rose (Les chansons des roses)

    Choir: Polyphony. Conductor: Stephen Layton.
    • Les Chansons Des Roses.
    • Hyperion.
    • 7.

  • Maurice Ravel

    Vocalise-étude en forme de habanera, M. 51 (Arr. for Flute and Harp by J. Hurel

    • Élégance: French music for flute and harp.
    • harmonia mundi.
    • 7.

  • Louis Moreau Gottschalk

    Danse des sylphes

    Performer: Philip Martin.
    • Gottschalk: Piano Music 6: Philip Martin.
    • Hyperion.
    • 10.

  • Gioachino Rossini

    Una voce poco fa (Il barbiere di Siviglia)

    Singer: Cecilia Bartoli. Orchestra: Orchestra La Scintilla. Conductor: Ádám Fischer.
    • Sospiri: Cecilia Bartoli.
    • Decca.
    • 10.

  • Hugo Alfvén

    Swedish Rhapsody no.1 'Midsummer Vigil'

    Orchestra: Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Esa‐Pekka Salonen.
    • Sibelius: Finlandia; Valse Triste; Grieg: Sigurd Jorsalfar; Salonen.
    • SONY.
    • 1.

  • Jean‐Joseph de Mondonville

    Sonate en symphonie in F major Op.3 no.2

    Ensemble: Les Musiciens du Louvre. Conductor: Marc Minkowski.
    • ARCHIV.

  • Billy Strayhorn

    Take the "A" Train

    Performer: Duke Ellington and His Orchestra.
    • Battle of the Bands.
    • BMG.
    • 18.

  • Florence Price

    Hold Fast to Dreams

    Lyricist: Langston Hughes.
    • We Have Tomorrow.
    • Delos.
    • 6.

  • Arturo Márquez

    Conga del fuego nuevo

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

  • Eric Coates

    London Suite: III. Knightsbridge (March)

    Orchestra: The New London Orchestra. Conductor: Ronald Corp.
    • British Light Music Classics 2: New London Orchestra/Corp.
    • Hyperion.

  • Louise Farrenc

    Sextet for piano & winds in C minor, Op.40 (1st mvt: Allegro)

    Performer: Eric Le Sage. Ensemble: Les Vents Français.
    • WARNER CLASSICS.

  • Richard Wagner

    Das Rheingold, WWV 86A, Scene 4: Rheingold! Rheingold! reines Gold!

    Lyricist: Richard Wagner. Conductor: Fabio Luisi. Orchestra: Dallas Symphony Orchestra.
    • Wagner: Das Rheingold.
    • Delos.
    • 30.

  • Franz Schubert

    Impromptu in A flat major, D.935 no.2

    Performer: Mitsuko Uchida.
    • Schubert: Impromptus.
    • Philips.
    • 6.

  • Pyotr Tchaikovsky

    The Tempest, Op. 18:

    Conductor: Alpesh Chauhan. Orchestra: BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.
    • Tchaikovsky: The Tempest, Francesca da Rimini, The Voyevoda, Overture and Polona.
    • Chandos.
    • 102.

  • Henry Purcell

    Abdelazer (Rondeau)

    Orchestra: English Baroque Soloists. Conductor: Sir John Eliot Gardiner.
    • John Eliot Gardiner - The Blossoming Conductor.
    • Warner Classics.
    • 1.

  • Sally Beamish

    Gerropaedie

    Performer: Sally Beamish. Performer: Stephanie Irvine.
    • Gerropaedie.
    • Delphian Records.
    • 1.

  • Reinhold Moritzevich Glière

    Harp Concerto in E-Flat Major, Op. 74: I. Allegro moderato

    Performer: Xavier de Maistre. Orchestra: WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne. Conductor: Nathalie Stutzmann.
    • Glière, Mosolov: Harp Concertos.
    • Sony Classical/Sony Music.
    • 1.

  • William Byrd

    Tristitia et anxietas a 5 (Cantiones Sacrae, 1589): I. Tristitia et anxiet

    Lyricist: Anonymous.
    • Byrd: Mass for Five Voices; Ave verum corpus; Lamentations & Other Works.
    • Hyperion.

  • Johann Strauss II

    Roses From the South, Waltz

    Orchestra: Vienna Philharmonic. Conductor: Yannick Nézet‐Séguin.
    • Neujahrskonzert 2026 / New Year's Concert 2026 / Concert du Nouvel An 2026.
    • Sony Classical.
    • 4.

Broadcast

  • Yesterday 09:30
    BBC Radio 3