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A classical soundtrack for your morning

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, with discoveries and surprises rubbing shoulders with familiar favourites.

1000 Playlist starter – listen and send us your ideas for the next step in our musical journey today.

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

  • Joseph Haydn

    Cello Concerto no.2 in D major H.7b.2 (3rd mvt)

    Performer: Alisa Weilerstein. Orchestra: TrondheimSolistene.
    • Pentatone.
  • Kodály Zoltán

    Intermezzo

    Ensemble: Notos Quartett.
    • Hungarian Treasures.
    • RCA Red Seal.
    • 5.
  • Jakob Friedrich Kleinknecht

    Concerto for Lute in C Major: I. Allegro con brio

    Performer: Miguel Rincón. Ensemble: Il Pomo d’Oro.
    • Concertos for Baroque Lute (Fasch, Hagen, Kohaut, Kleinknecht).
    • 貹é.
    • 7.
  • Franz Liszt

    Transcendental Etudes, S. 139: No. 3 Paysage

    Performer: Yunchan Lim.
    • Live from The Cliburn - Liszt: Transcendental Etudes.
    • Steinway and Sons.
    • 3.
  • Franz Schubert

    Symphony no.5 in B flat major, D.485 (1st mvt)

    Orchestra: Chamber Orchestra of Europe. Conductor: Claudio Abbado.
    • Schubert: 8 Symphonies: Chamber Orchestra of Europe/Abbado.
    • Deutsche Grammophon.
    • 1.
  • Jean Sibelius

    Pan and Echo

    Orchestra: Kuopion kaupunginorkesteri. Conductor: Shuntaro Sato.
    • FINLANDIA.
  • Reinhold Moritzevich Glière

    Allegro, Octet in D majorOp 5 (1900)

    Ensemble: Berlin Philharmonic Octet.
    • Berlin Philharmonic String Octet.
    • MDG.
    • 6.
  • Deborah Pritchard

    The light thereof

    Performer: Matilda Lloyd. Ensemble: The Gesualdo Six. Director: Owain Park.
    • Radiant Dawn.
    • Hyperion.
  • Felix Mendelssohn

    Symphony no.5 in D major, Op.107 'Reformation' (2nd mvt)

    Orchestra: City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Orchestra: City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Edward Gardner. Conductor: Edward Gardner.
    • Mendelssohn in Birmingham Vol.1.
    • Chandos.
    • 3.
  • Wilhelm Stenhammar

    Serenade in F major, Op.31 (2nd mvt: Canzonetta)

    Orchestra: Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Andrew Davis.
    • Summer Nights.
    • Fazer Records/Finlandia.
    • 1.
  • Herbert Howells

    King David

    Performer: Joseph Middleton. Singer: Kitty Whately.
    • This Other Eden: A Landscape of English Poetry and Song.
    • Champs Hill.
  • Louise Farrenc

    Sextet in C minor (3rd mvt)

    Ensemble: Les Vents Français.
    • WARNER CLASSICS.
  • Johannes Brahms

    Symphony No 2 in D major, Op 73 (3rd mvt)

    Orchestra: Chamber Orchestra of Europe. Conductor: Yannick Nézet‐Séguin.
    • Deutsche Grammophon.
  • Ethel Smyth

    String Suite Op.1a (1st mvt)

    Orchestra: South-West German Chamber Orchestra Pforzheim. Conductor: Douglas Bostock.
    • British Music for Strings, Vol. 3.
    • CPO.
    • 101.
  • Gabriel Fauré

    Pavane, Op 50

    Orchestra: City of London Sinfonia. Conductor: Richard Hickox.
    • Bizet, Faure, Ibert, Ravel: City of London Sinfonia, Richard Hickox.
    • Virgin Classics.
    • 5.
  • Henry Purcell

    Dido and Aeneas: In our deep vaulted cell; Echo Dance of Furies

    Conductor: Trevor Pinnock. Orchestra: The English Concert.
    • El poder de Purcell.
    • UME - Global Clearing House.
  • Carl Nielsen

    Pan and Syrinx, Op 49

    Orchestra: Danish National Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Thomas Dausgaard.
    • Carl Nielsen: Orchestral music: Danish National Symphony Orch/Dausgaard.
    • Dacapo.
  • Giovanni Gabrieli

    Canzon à 12 in double echo

    Conductor: Eric Crees.
    • NAXOS.
  • Niels Wilhelm Gade

    String Sextet in E flat major, Op.44 (2nd mvt)

    Performer: Ensemble MidtVest.
    • Niels W. Gade: Chamber Works Volume 1.
    • CPO.
    • 2.
  • Ottorino Respighi

    Violin Sonata in B minor (2nd mvt)

    Performer: Renaud Capuçon. Performer: Francesco Piemontesi.
    • Martha Argerich and Friends Live from the Lugano Festival 2013.
    • WARNER CLASSICS.
    • 2.
  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    Horn Concerto No 3 in E flat major, K 447 (3rd mvt)

    Performer: Radovan Vlatković. Orchestra: English Chamber Orchestra. Director: Jeffrey Tate.
    • Mozart The Collectors Edition 50 CDs The Masterpieces The Greatest Artists.
    • EMI Classics.
    • 8.
  • Ruth Gipps

    Symphony No.2 in B major, Op.30

    Orchestra: ѿý National Orchestra of Wales. Conductor: Rumon Gamba.
    • CHANDOS.
  • Andrea Falconiero

    Folias echa para mi Señora Doña Tarolilla de Carallenos

    Ensemble: Accademia d’Arcadia. Conductor: Alessandra Rossi Lürig.
    • Et manchi pietà.
    • Dynamic.
    • 601.
  • Lili Boulanger

    D'un matin de printemps

    Orchestra: Orchestre national de Lyon. Conductor: Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider.
    • Aux étoiles - French Symphonic Poems.
    • Bru Zane.
    • 3.
  • Johann Sebastian Bach

    Brandenburg Concerto no.5 in D major BWV.1050 (3rd mvt)

    Orchestra: Concerto Italiano. Conductor: Rinaldo Alessandrini.
    • J.S. Bach: The Brandenburg Concertos; Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.
    • EMI Classics.
    • 9.
  • Germaine Tailleferre

    Harp Sonata (Perpetuum Mobile)

    Performer: Sarah Schuster Ericsson.
    • DORIAN SONO LUMINUS.
  • Johann Strauss II

    Roses from the South Op.388

    Music Arranger: Arnold Schoenberg. Ensemble: Linos Ensemble. Performer: Ryoko Morooka.
    • Capriccio.

Broadcast

  • Fri 1 Aug 2025 09:30

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