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A feast of great music

Ian Skelly plays the best in classical music, with discoveries and surprises rubbing shoulders with familiar favourites.

Ian Skelly 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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20 days left to listen

3 hours, 30 minutes

Last on

Mon 22 Dec 2025 09:30
麻豆社 Radio 3

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Music Played

  • John Foulds

    Bells at Coblentz (Holiday Sketches Op.16)

    Orchestra: 麻豆社 Concert Orchestra. Conductor: Ronald Corp.
    • J Foulds, Keltic Suite: 麻豆社 Concert Orchestra/Corp.
    • Epoch.
    • 10.

  • Trad.

    God rest ye merry gentlemen

    Performer: Simon Bell. Music Arranger: Sir David Willcocks. Choir: Winchester Cathedral Choir. Director: Andrew Lumsden.
    • Christmas from Winchester: Winchester Cathedral Choir.
    • Regent.
    • 4.

  • Richard Bissill

    A Christmas Carnival

    Orchestra: Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Conductor: Christopher Bell.
    • LINN.

  • Antonio Vivaldi

    Winter (The Four Seasons)

    Performer: Rachel Podger. Ensemble: Brecon Baroque.
    • VIVALDI: LE QUATTRO STAGIONI.
    • Channel Classics.

  • Will Todd

    My Lord Has Come

    Choir: Tenebrae. Conductor: Nigel Short.
    • Will Todd: The Call of Wisdom.
    • Signum Classics.
    • 5.

  • Claude Debussy

    Children's Corner; IV. The Snow is Dancing

    Performer: Seong鈥怞in Cho.
    • Debussy.
    • Deutsche Grammophon (DG).
    • 10.

  • Samuel Coleridge-Taylor

    Christmas Overture (The Forest of Wild Thyme Op.74)

    Music Arranger: Sydney Baynes. Orchestra: 麻豆社 Concert Orchestra. Conductor: Barry Wordsworth.
    • The Night Before Christmas.
    • Naxos.
    • 2.

  • Pietro Locatelli

    Concerto Grosso in F Minor Op.1`8 'Christmas concerto'

    Orchestra: Concerto Copenhagen. Conductor: Lars Ulrik Mortensen.
    • Per la notte di Natale: Italian Christmas Concertos.
    • Naxos.
    • 501.

  • Trad.

    Infant Holy, Infant Lowly

    Ensemble: Berlin Philharmonic Brass.
    • Frohe Weihnachten!.
    • Berliner Philharmoniker Recordings.
    • 17.

  • Gustav Holst

    A Winter Idyll

    Orchestra: London Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: David Atherton.
    • LYRITA.

  • Alfred Tennyson

    Ring Out, Wild Bells (Arr. for Choir & Orchestra by Owain Park)

    Composer: Percy Fletcher (Non-Protected Share).
    • On Christmas Night.
    • Orchid Classics.
    • 1.

  • Sir George Dyson

    Concerto da Chiesa (Veni, Emmanuel)

    Performer: Andrew Watkinson. Performer: Edward Roberts. Performer: Stephen Tees. Performer: Stephen Orton. Orchestra: City of London Sinfonia. Conductor: Richard Hickox.
    • CHANDOS.

  • John Gardner

    Tomorrow shall be my dancing day

    Choir: The Sixteen. Performer: Ben Hoffnung. Performer: William Lockhart. Performer: Margaret Phillips. Conductor: Harry Christophers.
    • Hodie - An English Christmas Collection.
    • Coro.
    • 25.

  • Johann Melchior Molter

    Concerto pastorale

    Orchestra: Kammerorchester Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. Conductor: Hartmut Haenchen.
    • Christmas Concertos - Kammerochestrer Carl Phillip Emanuel Bach.
    • Sony Classical.
    • 5.

  • James MacMillan

    O Radiant Dawn (The Strathclyde Motets)

    Choir: The Gesualdo Six. Conductor: Owain Park.
    • Radiant Dawn.
    • Hyperion.
    • 5.

  • Percy Grainger

    Shepherd's Hey

    Performer: Keith Brion.
    • NAXOS.

  • Jonathan Dove

    Seek Him that Maketh the Seven Stars

    Choir: Choir of St John鈥檚 College, Cambridge. Performer: Glen Dempsey. Conductor: Andrew Nethsingha.
    • Locus Iste.
    • Signum Classics.
    • 701.

  • Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

    Dance of the Tumblers (Snow Maiden suite)

    Orchestra: Philharmonia Orchestra. Conductor: Efrem Kurtz.
    • Efrem Kurtz - Profile.
    • EMI.
    • 004.

  • Takashi Yoshimatsu

    White Landscapes Op.47a for chamber orchestra

    Orchestra: Manchester Camerata. Conductor: Sachio Fujioka.
    • Chandos.

  • Philip Stopford

    Lully, Lulla, Lullay

    Ensemble: VOCES8. Director: Barnaby Smith.
    • After Silence.
    • VOCES8 Records.
    • 10.

  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    3 German Dances, K.605: No 3 in C major 'Schlittenfahrt' (Sleigh Ride)

    Orchestra: Academy of St Martin in the Fields. Conductor: Neville Marriner.
    • Philips.

  • Morten Lauridsen

    O Magnum Mysterium

    Choir: The Sixteen. Conductor: Harry Christophers.
    • Song of the Nativity.
    • CORO.
    • 1.

  • Arcangelo Corelli

    Concerto Grosso in G minor, Op 6 No 8, 'Christmas Concerto'

    Ensemble: The English Concert. Conductor: Trevor Pinnock.
    • Corelli: Concerti Grossi Op.6.
    • Archiv.
    • 7-12.

  • Sergey Prokofiev

    Troika (Lieutenant Kije Suite)

    Orchestra: Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Claudio Abbado.
    • Ave Maria - Christmas Classic Songs.
    • Universal Music.
    • 18.

  • Francis Poulenc

    Videntes stellam (4 Motets pour le temps de No毛l)

    Performer: Anna Noakes. Choir: Choir of New College Oxford. Conductor: Edward Higginbottom.
    • Nativitas, A celebration of peace: Choir of New College, Oxford/Higginbottom.
    • Erato.
    • 20.

  • Ralph Vaughan Williams

    Suite for viola and small orchestra - Group 1 (Prelude, Carol & Christmas Dance)

    Performer: Lawrence Power. Orchestra: 麻豆社 National Orchestra of Wales. Conductor: Martyn Brabbins.
    • Vaughan Williams: Suite / Flos Campi.
    • Hyperion.
    • 1-3.

  • Frederick Delius

    Sleigh Ride (Winter Night)

    Orchestra: Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Andrew Davis.
    • Delius in Norway.
    • CHANDOS.
    • 5.

  • Johann Sebastian Bach

    Allegro (From Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, BWV 1048) Arr. Olivero

    Performer: Sarah Willis. Ensemble: The Sarahbanda.
    • Cuban Christmas.
    • Deutsche Grammophon (DG).
    • 10.

  • Frank Bridge

    Sir Roger de Coverley - Christmas Dance

    Orchestra: 麻豆社 National Orchestra of Wales. Conductor: Richard Hickox.
    • Bridge: Orchestral Works Vol. 3: Shelley / 麻豆社 NOW / Hickox.
    • Chandos.
    • 8.

  • Johann Sebastian Bach

    Nun komm der Heiden Heiland BWV.659

    Music Arranger: Ferruccio Busoni. Performer: V铆kingur 脫lafsson.
    • Solo Piano Works.
    • DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON.
    • 8.

  • George Frideric Handel

    Every valley shall be exalted (Messiah)

    Performer: Ian Bostridge.
    • WARNER CLASSICS.

Broadcast

  • Mon 22 Dec 2025 09:30
    麻豆社 Radio 3