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Colours of Autumn: The very best of classical music

Georgia Mann plays the best classical music for your morning, with discoveries and surprises rubbing shoulders with familiar favourites.

Georgia Mann plays the best classical music for your morning, beginning a special week in which she celebrates the sounds and colours of autumn. Including the Playlister challenge: our regular listener-created sequence inspired by a different piece of music each day, and a new classical release is in focus for Album of the Week. Plus at midday, a special half hour sequence of words and music on autumnal themes, with poetry and prose read by Anton Lesser and Josette Simon.

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 -1230 Colours of Autumn: an indulgent selection of words and music on autumnal themes, with poetry and prose read by Anton Lesser and Josette Simon. Today's sequence focusses on the transition from summer into autumn, with the harvest of crops and then of apples.

Richard Addinsell arr. Roy Douglas: The Isle of Apples
BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Kenneth Alwyn

Laurie Lee - Cider with Rosie (extract)
Read by Anton Lesser

Ralph Vaughan Williams: From far, from eve and morning (On Wenlock Edge)
Nicky Spence (tenor)
Piatti Quartet
Julius Drake (piano)

Thomas Hardy: The Woodlanders (extract)
Read by Josette Simon

Michel Legrand: The Go Between (music from the film)
Catherine Michel (harp)
Michel Legrand (harpsichord/director)
Flemish Radio Orchestra

L.M. Montgomery: Anne of Green Gables (extract)
Read by Josette Simon

Jing-Ping Zhang arr. Yi-Wen Jiang: Harvest Celebration
Shanghai Quartet

Ted Hughes: The Harvest Moon
Read by Anton Lesser

Rebecca Clarke: Midsummer Moon
Jonathan Rees (violin)
Kathron Sturrock (piano)

Jo Clement: A stopping place
Read by Josette Simon

Traditional arr. Craig Leon: I will give my love an apple
Andreas Scholl (counter tenor)
Edin Karamazov (lute)
Stacey Shames (harp)
Orpheus Chamber Orchestra

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29 days left to listen

3 hours, 30 minutes

Last on

Yesterday09:30
BBC Radio 3

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Music Played

  • Robert Schumann

    Arabeske

    Performer: Maria João Pires.
    • Schumann Gold.
    • Deutsche Grammophon (DG).
    • 16.

  • Ottorino Respighi

    Italiana (Ancient Airs and Dances Suite no.3)

    Orchestra: Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.
    • Respighi: Ancient Airs and Dances: Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.
    • Deutsche Grammophon.
    • 10.

  • Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach

    Magnificat (Opening chorus)

    Ensemble: Arcangelo. Conductor: Jonathan Cohen.
    • HYPERION.

  • Luise Adolpha Le Beau

    Piano Quartet in F minor, Op 28 (3rd mvt)

    Ensemble: Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective.
    • Brahms & Contemporaries, Vol. 1.
    • Chandos.
    • 7.

  • Edward Elgar

    Cello Concerto in E minor Op.85 (4th mvt)

    Performer: Jean‐Guihen Queyras. Orchestra: BBC Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Jiří Bělohlávek.
    • harmonia mundi.

  • Herbie Hancock

    Harvest Time

    Performer: Herbie Hancock.
    • The Piano.
    • Sony.
    • 004.

  • George Enescu

    Romanian rhapsody no.1 in A major Op.11 no.1 (extract)

    Orchestra: Orchestre national de France. Conductor: Cristian Măcelaru.
    • Enescu: Symphonies Nos. 1-3; 2 Romanian Rhapsodies.
    • Deutsche Grammophon (DG).
    • 1.

  • Ralph Vaughan Williams

    Suite for viola and small orchestra (Prelude)

    Performer: Timothy Ridout. Orchestra: Lausanne Chamber Orchestra. Conductor: Jamie Phillips.
    • Music for Viola and Chamber Orchestra.
    • Claves.
    • 1.

  • Franz Schubert

    Octet, D 803 (3rd mvt)

    Ensemble: Scharoun Ensemble.
    • Schubert: Octet D 803.
    • PENTATONE.

  • Lucy Walker

    I saw eternity

    Choir: Ensemble Altera. Conductor: Christopher Lowrey.
    • The Four Elements.
    • Pentatone.
    • 114.

  • Camille Saint‐Saëns

    Fantaisie, Op 124

    Performer: Skaila Kanga. Performer: Kenneth Sillito.
    • Ravel, Debussy, Saint-Saens, Roussel - Kanga/ASMF.
    • Chandos.
    • 7.

  • Ruth Gipps

    Clarinet Concerto in G minor Op.9 (3rd mvt)

    Performer: Robert Plane. Orchestra: BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Martyn Brabbins.
    • Champs Hill Records.

  • Antonín Dvořák

    Scherzo capriccioso Op.66

    Orchestra: Oslo Philharmonic. Conductor: Mariss Jansons.
    • Dvorak: Symphony No. 5, Scherzo Capriccioso etc..
    • EMI.
    • 6.

  • Frank Bridge

    Valse intermezzo

    Orchestra: BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Conductor: Richard Hickox.
    • Bridge: Orchestral works vol.5: BBC NOW/Hickox.
    • CHANDOS.
    • 14.

  • Percy Grainger

    Harvest Hymn

    Orchestra: Academy of St Martin in the Fields. Conductor: Neville Marriner.
    • English Seasons.
    • Decca Music Group Ltd..
    • 5.

  • Pyotr Tchaikovsky

    August, 'The Harvest' (The Seasons)

    Performer: Bruce Liu.
    • Tchaikovsky: The Seasons.
    • DG.
    • 8.

  • Henry Purcell

    Your hay it is mow'd (King Arthur)

    Singer: Paul Elliott. Singer: Ashley Stafford. Singer: Stephen Varcoe. Orchestra: English Baroque Soloists. Conductor: Sir John Eliot Gardiner.
    • Erato.

  • Sergey Rachmaninov

    Prelude in B flat major, Op 23 No 2

    Performer: Steven Osborne.
    • Hyperion.

  • Claude Debussy

    String Quartet in G minor (3rd mvt)

    Ensemble: Nash Ensemble.
    • Debussy: String Quartet & Sonatas.
    • Hyperion.
    • 13.

  • Benedetto Marcello

    Sonata No 5 in B flat major, Op 2

    Conductor: Adrian Chandler. Ensemble: La Serenissima.
    • Hell’s Angels.
    • Signum Records.

  • Johannes Brahms

    Intermezzo in A major, Op 118 No 2

    Performer: Francesco Piemontesi.
    • Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 1 & Six Piano Pieces Op. 118.
    • Pentatone.
    • 105.

  • Joseph Canteloube

    Bailero (Chants d'Auvergne)

    Singer: Kate Royal. Conductor: Edward Gardner. Orchestra: Academy of St Martin in the Fields.
    • Kate Royal.
    • Warner Classics.
    • 103.

  • Richard Addinsell

    The Isle of Apples

    Music Arranger: Roy Douglas. Orchestra: BBC Concert Orchestra. Conductor: Kenneth Alwyn.
    • Addinsell: Goodbye Mr. Chips / A Tale of Two Cities.
    • Marco-Polo.
    • 4.

  • Ralph Vaughan Williams

    From far, from eve and morning (On Wenlock Edge)

    Performer: Julius Drake. Singer: Nicky Spence. Ensemble: Piatti Quartet.
    • Hyperion.

  • Michel Legrand

    The Go Between (music from the film)

    Performer: Catherine Michel. Performer: Michel Legrand. Conductor: Michel Legrand. Orchestra: Brussels Philharmonic.

  • Jing-Ping Zhang

    Harvest Celebration

    Music Arranger: Yi-Wen Jiang. Ensemble: The Shanghai Quartet.
    • China Song.
    • Delos.
    • 601.

  • Rebecca Clarke

    Midsummer Moon

    Performer: Jonathan Rees. Performer: Kathron Sturrock.
    • Rebecca Clarke.
    • Gamut Classics.
    • 7.

  • Trad.

    I will give my love an apple

    Performer: Edin Karamazov. Performer: Stacey Shames. Music Arranger: Craig Leon. Singer: Andreas Scholl. Orchestra: Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.
    • Wayfaring Stranger.
    • DECCA.
    • 7.

  • Antonio Vivaldi

    Gloria in excelsis Deo from Gloria for soloists, chorus and orchestra (RV.589)

    Choir: The English Concert Choir. Orchestra: The English Concert. Conductor: Trevor Pinnock.
    • Vivaldi: Gloria/Scarlatti: Dixit Dominus: The English Concert/Pinnock.
    • Archiv Produktion.
    • 1.

  • William Byrd

    Hugh Ashton's Ground

    Performer: Joanna MacGregor.
    • SOUND CIRCUS.

  • Marie Jaëll

    Cello Concerto in F major (3rd mvt)

    Performer: Xavier Phillips. Orchestra: Brussels Philharmonic. Conductor: Hervé Niquet.
    • Marie Jaëll: Musique symphonique & Musique pour piano.
    • Bru Zane.
    • 9.

  • Agustín Barrios Mangoré

    Mazurka appassionata

    Performer: Thibaut Garcia.
    • El Bohemio.
    • ERATO.
    • 3.

  • Gerald Finzi

    Five Bagatelles, Op. 23: IV. Forlana

    Performer: Michael Collins. Orchestra: BBC Symphony Orchestra.
    • Britten, Mathias, Finzi & Cooke: British Clarinet Concertos, Vol. 2.
    • Chandos.
    • 107.

Broadcast

  • Yesterday09:30
    BBC Radio 3