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The Summer Garden Mixtape

An hour of sublime music mixed with sounds from the natural world.

Be transported to a beautiful summer garden with an hour of sublime music, combined with familiar sounds from the natural world in a seamless, relaxing mix.

We’ve paired Breakfast listeners’ recordings of birdsong, bells, water and wind in the trees with glorious music, starting with Delius’s wonderfully hazy In a Summer Garden and ending with Ravel’s The fairy garden. In between, there’s music by Chopin, Gurney, Schreker, Debussy, Liszt and Liadov.

Many thanks to the listeners who sent in their recordings of gardens and outdoor spaces – especially Rodney Harris, Kate Johnson, Michael Maxwell Steer, Vanessa McDonald, John Price and Masha Thorne, whose recordings are used here.

1 hour

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Music Played

  • Frederick Delius

    In a Summer Garden

    Performer: Â鶹ԼÅÄ Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Sir Andrew Davis.

  • Blackbird song

    Recorded by an anonymous listener

  • Benjamin Grosvenor

    Nocturne in F# major, Op. 15, No. 2

  • Sounds from a Wiltshire garden

    Recorded by listener Michael Maxwell Steer

  • Ivor Gurney

    Down by the Salley Gardens

    Performer: Kitty Whately. Performer: Joseph Middleton.

  • Sounds from a Surrey Garden

    Recorded by listener Kate Johnson

  • Franz Schreker

    Valse Lente

    Orchestra: Â鶹ԼÅÄ Philharmonic. Conductor: Vassily Sinaisky.

  • Songthrush song

    Recorded by listener Rodney Harris

  • Claude Debussy

    Prelude à l’apres-midi d’un faune

    Orchestra: Â鶹ԼÅÄ Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Ilan Volkov.

  • Sounds from the garden of a former watermill

    Recorded by listener John Price

  • Franz Liszt

    Les Jeux d’eau a la Villa d’Este

    Performer: Zhang Zuo.

  • Sound of swifts above a Somerset garden

    Recorded by listener Vanessa McDonald

  • Anatoly Konstantinovich Lyadov

    The Enchanted Lake

    Orchestra: Â鶹ԼÅÄ National Orchestra of Wales. Conductor: Thierry Fischer.

  • Sound of a nightingale in an Essex garden

    Recorded by listener Masha Thorne

  • Maurice Ravel

    Le jardin féerique

    Orchestra: Â鶹ԼÅÄ Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Sakari Oramo.

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