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9am
My Favourite... Duos. Rob shares his favourite examples of these works for two musicians, where each artist's response to the other is put under the spotlight, creating what is perhaps the ultimate expression of chamber music. Rob's choices explore a selection of instrumental combinations including duos for strings by Bartók, a duo for pianos by Schubert, and duos for percussion, and guitars.

9.30am
Take part in our daily musical challenge: identify a piece of music played backwards.

10am
Rob's guest, historian, writer and television presenter Simon Sebag Montefiore, will be sharing a selection of his favourite classical music, including works by Shostakovich, Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky that link to his writing on Russia, every day at 10am. Simon's acclaimed history books have been published in over 45 languages and include Jerusalem: The Biography, Catherine the Great and Potemkin and Young Stalin. His latest book, The Romanovs 1613-1918, chronicles the stories of twenty tsars and tsarinas, and is already a bestseller in the UK, Australia and the USA. Simon has also won literary prizes for his fiction work. He has written the first two instalments of a trilogy of thriller-love-stories set in Russia. The second in the series, 'One Night in Winter', won the Best Political Novel of the Year Prize and was longlisted for the Orwell Prize.

10.30am
Music in Time: Renaissance
Rob places Music in Time. Today he explores the Renaissance period and the influence of Giovanni Palestrina's Missa Sine Nomine on the music of Bach.

10.45am
Rob's featured Proms artist is the conductor Sir Mark Elder, who will be directing the Hallé in music by Berlioz, Colin Matthews and Mahler in tonight's Â鶹ԼÅÄ Prom. Today on Essential Classics, we hear Elder's total identification with the English orchestral style of Elgar, with recordings of his Pomp and Circumstances Marches Nos 2 and 3.

Elgar
Pomp and Circumstances Marches Nos 2 and 3.
Hallé Orchestra
Sir Mark Elder (conductor).