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The very best 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 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.

1200 “25 for 25: Sounds of the Century” – a series of brand new commissions celebrating and commemorating some of the biggest events of the 21st century so far.

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

  • Ludwig van Beethoven

    Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61 (3rd mvt)

    Performer: Isabelle Faust. Orchestra: Orchestra Mozart. Conductor: Claudio Abbado.
    • Harmonia Mundi.
  • Francis Poulenc

    Elegie [en accords alternes]

    Performer: Louis Lortie. Performer: Hélène Mercier.
    • Chandos.
  • Grażyna Bacewicz

    Symphony no.3 (3rd mvt)

    Orchestra: WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne. Conductor: Łukasz Borowicz.
    • Bacewicz: Complete Symphonic Works, Vol. 1.
    • CPO.
    • 103.
  • Ola Gjeilo

    Still

    Music Arranger: Geoff Lawson. Choir: VOCES8. Performer: Eleanor Turner.
    • Infinity.
    • Decca Music Group Ltd..
    • 10.
  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    Quintet in E flat major K.407 for horn and strings: 1st movement; Allegro

    Performer: Felix Klieser. Ensemble: Zemlinsky Quartet.
    • Mozart & Haydn For Horn & String Quartet.
    • Berlin Classics.
    • 10.
  • Eric Coates

    By the sleepy lagoon

    Orchestra: ѿý Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: John Wilson.
    • Chandos.
  • Georg Philipp Telemann

    Triple Concerto in E major for flute, oboe d'amore and viola, TWV 53 E1

    Performer: Stephen Preston. Performer: Clare Shanks. Performer: Monica Huggett. Orchestra: Academy of Ancient Music. Director: Christopher Hogwood.
    • ’O-۸鷡.
  • Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

    Piano Concerto no.2 in G major (3rd mvt)

    Performer: Sir Stephen Hough. Orchestra: Minnesota Orchestra. Conductor: Osmo Vänskä.
    • Tchaikovsky; The Three Piano Concertos, Concert Fantasia.
    • Hyperion.
    • 3.
  • Trad.

    Were you there when they crucified my Lord?

    Performer: Lawrence Brown. Music Arranger: Harry Burleigh. Singer: Paul Robeson.
    • The Great Paul Robeson.
    • Memoir Records.
    • 21.
  • Georges Bizet

    Farandole (L'Arlesienne Suite no.2)

    Ensemble: Les Musiciens du Louvre. Conductor: Marc Minkowski.
    • Naive.
  • Rachel Portman

    Emma "main theme"

    Orchestra: The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra.
    • Reel Love - The Cinematic Romance Album.
    • Silva Screen Records.
    • 13.
  • Robert Schumann

    Quintet for piano and strings (Op.44)in E flat major; 1st mvt; Allegro brillante

    Performer: Jonathan Biss. Ensemble: Elias String Quartet.
    • ONYX.
  • Frederick Delius

    On hearing the first cuckoo in spring

    Orchestra: Hallé. Conductor: Mark Elder.
    • HALLE.
  • Johann Sebastian Bach

    Easter Oratorio BWV.249 (opening)

    Ensemble: Taverner Consort. Ensemble: Taverner Players. Conductor: Andrew Parrott.
    • Bach: Magnificat / Cantatas 4, 11 & 50 / Easter Oratorio.
    • Erato.
  • Francisco Guerrero

    Maria Magdalene

    Choir: Stile Antico.
    • Harmonia Mundi.
  • Gian Piero Reverberi

    The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (Opening Titles)

    Composer: Robert Mellin.
    • The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (Original Television Soundtrack).
    • Silva Screen Records Ltd.
    • 1.
  • Gian Piero Reverberi

    The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe - Main Theme

    Composer: Robert Mellin.
    • The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (Original Television Soundtrack).
    • Silva Screen Records Ltd.
    • 2.
  • John Ireland

    Sea Fever

    Singer: Bryn Terfel. Performer: Malcolm Martineau.
    • The Art of Bryn Terfel.
    • Deutsche Grammophon.
    • 5.
  • Claude Debussy

    En bateau (Petite suite)

    Orchestrator: Henri Büsser. Orchestra: The Cleveland Orchestra. Conductor: Louis Lane.
    • The Debussy Collection.
    • Sony Classical.
    • 3.
  • Samuel Coleridge-Taylor

    Petite Suite (La Caprice de Nanette)

    Orchestra: The New London Orchestra. Conductor: Ronald Corp.
    • British Light Music Classics, Vol. 4.
    • HYPERION.
    • 17.
  • Frédéric Chopin

    Nocturne in C sharp minor Op.posth

    Music Arranger: Nathan Milstein. Performer: Bomsori. Performer: Rafał Blechacz.
    • DG.
  • Giovanni Gabrieli

    Canzon à 10, S.137

    Performer: London Symphony Brass. Conductor: Eric Crees.
    • Gabrieli: Music for Brass Vol. 3.
    • Naxos.
    • 2.
  • Giovanni Gabrieli

    Canzon noni toni à 12, C183

    Music Arranger: Eric Crees. Performer: London Symphony Brass. Conductor: Eric Crees.
    • Cathedral Brass: London Symphony Brass/Crees.
    • Collins Classics.
    • 9.
  • Jean Sibelius

    The Swan of Tuonela (Lemminkainen Suite)

    Conductor: Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Hannu Lintu.
    • Winter with Sibelius.
    • ONDINE.
    • 2.
  • Eugène Gigout

    Toccata in B Minor

    Performer: Nicolas Kynaston.
    • Essential Organ.
    • Warner Classics.
    • 5.
  • Karl Jenkins

    The Signs Still Point The Way

    Choir: ѿý Singers. Orchestra: ѿý Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Gabriella Teychenné.
  • Joe Hisaishi

    Merry-Go-Round of Life (Howl's Moving Castle)

    Orchestra: Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Joe Hisaishi.
    • A Symphonic Celebration - Music from the Studio Ghibli Films of Hayao Miyazaki.
    • Universal Music LLC.
    • 1.
  • Alexander Glazunov

    Violin Concerto in A minor, Op 82

    Performer: Maxim Vengerov. Orchestra: Berliner Philharmoniker. Conductor: Claudio Abbado.
    • TELDEC.
  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    Sonata in C major K.545 for piano

    Performer: Angela Hewitt.
    • Mozart: Piano Sonatas K457, K533, K545, K570, K576.
    • Hyperion.
  • William Henry Harris

    Faire is the Heaven

    Choir: Choir of The Queen's College, Oxford. Conductor: Owen Rees.
    • A New Heaven.
    • Signum Classics.
    • 1001.
  • George Frideric Handel

    Dopo notte (Ariodante)

    Singer: Lorraine Hunt Lieberson. Ensemble: Freiburg Baroque Orchestra. Conductor: Nicholas McGegan.
    • Handel - Ariodante.
    • Harmonia Mundi.
    • 016.

Broadcast

  • Thu 19 Jun 2025 09:30