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Celebrating classical greats

Georgia Mann plays the best in classical music, featuring new discoveries, some musical surprises and plenty of familiar favourites.

Georgia Mann plays the best in classical music, featuring new discoveries, some musical surprises and plenty of 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 ѿý Sounds to play Essential Classics”

3 hours, 30 minutes

Music Played

  • Richard Rodgers

    South Pacific Overture

    Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Jonathan Tunick.
    • South Pacific.
    • CBS.
    • 1.
  • Sergey Rachmaninov

    Prelude in C sharp minor (5 Morceaux de fantaisie Op.3)

    Performer: Simon Trpceski.
    • Simon Trpčeski plays Rachmaninov.
    • Warner Classics.
    • 13.
  • Joseph Haydn

    String Quartet in B flat major Op.76 no.4 'Sunrise' (1st mvt)

    Ensemble: Chiaroscuro Quartet.
    • BIS.
  • Benjamin Britten

    Matinées musicales, Op 24 (Waltz)

    Orchestra: National Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Richard Bonynge.
    • Rossini/Respighi: La Boutique Fantasque: National Philharmonic Orch/Bonynge.
    • Decca.
    • 9.
  • George Frideric Handel

    Messiah (Comfort ye, my people & Every valley shall be exalted)

    Composer: George Frideric Handel. Singer: Anthony Rolfe Johnson. Orchestra: English Baroque Soloists. Orchestra: English Baroque Soloists. Conductor: Sir John Eliot Gardiner. Conductor: Sir John Eliot Gardiner.
    • Philips.
  • Percy Grainger

    Handel in the Strand

    Orchestra: ѿý Philharmonic Orchestra. Orchestra: ѿý Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Richard Hickox. Conductor: Richard Hickox.
    • The Grainger Edition, Vol.2 - Orchestral Works.
    • Chandos.
    • 11.
  • Felix Mendelssohn

    Symphony No 5 in D major, Op 107, 'Reformation' (1st mvt)

    Orchestra: Vienna Philharmonic. Conductor: Christoph von Dohnányi.
    • Mendelssohn: Symphonies Nos.3 - 5; THe Hebrides, etc. - Wiener Philharmoniker, D.
    • Decca.
    • 1.
  • Cécile Chaminade

    Carnival Waltz, Op.73

    Performer: Bengt Forsberg. Performer: Peter Jablonski.
    • Deutsche Grammophon.
  • Georges Bizet

    L'Arlésienne Suite no.1 (Carillon)

    Orchestra: Les Musiciens du Louvre. Director: Marc Minkowski.
    • Bizet: L'arlesienne, Carmen suites: Minkowski.
    • Naive.
    • 8.
  • Ralph Vaughan Williams

    The House of Life (No 2, Silent Noon)

    Performer: Anna Tilbrook. Singer: Ashley Riches.
  • Johann Sebastian Bach

    Brandenburg concerto no. 1 (BWV.1046) in F major

    Ensemble: Il Giardino Armonico. Conductor: Giovanni Antonini.
    • J.S. Bach: The Brandenburg Concertos; Il Giardino Armonico.
    • Warner Classics.
    • 1.
  • Paul Reade

    Prelude (The Victorian Kitchen Garden)

    Performer: Emma Johnson. Performer: Skaila Kanga.
    • Emma Johnson - Encores.
    • ASV.
    • 1.
  • Michael Torke

    Bright Blue Music

    Orchestra: Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: David Zinman.
    • Michael Torke - Ecstatic Orange etc..
    • Argo.
    • 005.
  • Giacomo Puccini

    O mio babbino caro (Gianni Schicchi)

    Singer: Renée Fleming. Orchestra: London Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Charles Mackerras.
    • Decca.
  • Malcolm Arnold

    Little suite for orchestra No 2 (Dance)

    Orchestra: City of London Sinfonia. Conductor: Richard Hickox.
    • Arnold: Concerto for 28 players etc.: City of London Sinfonia/Hickox.
    • Chandos.
    • 9.
  • Erik Satie

    Le Piccadilly

    Performer: Alexandre Tharaud.
    • Satie: Avant-Dernieres Pensees: Alexandre Tharaud.
    • Harmonia Mundi.
    • 12.
  • Henry Walford Davies

    Royal Air Force March Past

    Ensemble: Central Band of the Royal Air Force. Conductor: Barrie Hingley.
    • Salute to Heroes: The Central band of the R.A.F.
    • EMI.
    • 1.
  • Peter Ludwig Hertel

    Clog Dance (La fille mal gardée)

    Orchestra: Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: John Lanchbery.
    • EMI.
  • Gabriel Fauré

    Souvenirs de Bayreuth

    Performer: Eric Le Sage. Performer: Alexandre Tharaud.
    • ALPHA.
  • Alec Templeton

    Bach Goes To Town

    Performer: Benny Goodman.
    • Benny Goodman Selected Favorites, Vol. 2.
    • Charly Records.
    • 10.
  • Charles Avison

    Concerto Grosso in F major, Op 9 No 10

    Performer: Pavlo Beznosiuk. Ensemble: Avison Ensemble.
    • The Avison Ensemble: Avison: Concerti Grossi, op. 9 & op. 10.
    • Divine Art.
    • 1.
  • Hubert Parry

    Jerusalem

    Music Arranger: Edward Elgar. Choir: Winchester Cathedral Choir. Orchestra: Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: David Hill.
    • Jerusalem, I was Glad: Choir of Winchester Cathedral.
    • Argo.
  • Edward Elgar

    Piano Quintet in A minor Op.84 (3rd mvt)

    Performer: Ian Brown. Ensemble: Sorrel Quartet.
    • CHANDOS.
  • Errollyn Wallen

    Chorale

    Orchestra: Orchestra of the Swan. Director: David Le Page.
    • Timelapse.
    • Signum Classics.
    • 1201.
  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    Violin Sonata in D major, K306

    Performer: Hana Chang. Performer: Jonathan Ware.
  • Carl Nielsen

    Symphony no.4 Op.29 'The Inextinguishable (1st mvt)

    Orchestra: ѿý Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: John Storgårds.
    • Chandos.
  • Niccolò Paganini

    24 Caprices for Solo Violin, Op. 1, MS 25: No. 24 in A Minor. Tema con

    Performer: María Dueñas.
    • Paganini: 24 Caprices — Caprices by Berlioz, Cervelló, Kreisler, Ortiz, Saint-Sa.
    • Deutsche Grammophon (DG).
    • 24.
  • Herbert Howells

    Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor: III. Allegro. Hard and Bright Again

    Performer: Kathryn Stott. Orchestra: Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Vernon Handley.
    • Herbert Howells: Concertos & Dances.
    • Hyperion.
    • 9.
  • Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

    The Flight of the Bumblebee (The Tale of Tsar Saltan)

    Performer: Wynton Marsalis. Ensemble: Eastman Wind Ensemble. Conductor: Donald Hunsberger.
    • SONY.
  • Sir James MacMillan

    The Gallant Weaver

    Choir: The Sixteen. Conductor: Harry Christophers.
    • CORO.
  • Alan Menken

    Beauty and the Beast (Overture)

    Music Arranger: James Shearman. Orchestra: Studio Orchestra. Conductor: Michael Kosarin.
    • Beauty and the Beast.
    • Walt Disney Records.
    • 1.

Broadcast

  • Fri 7 Mar 2025 09:30

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