I find it impossible to distill my favourite music down to 10 pieces. The ones I have chosen, I love a lot, but not substantially more than many others I could have selected. My choices, therefore, are best seen as representative, that is to say, the Brel song represents many other adored Brel songs as well as many other French chansonnier-style songs from other singers from Brassens to Moustaki and Cabrel to Gainsbourg. 10 to the power of 10 in no particular order.

1. Where do you go to my lovely / Peter Sarstedt – a favourite from youth when I was captivated by all the European references. Still am for that matter.

2. Amsterdam / Jacques Brel – only the live recording exists of Brel performing this. Brel played an essential part in me learning French as a teenager, borrowing the records from the city library and carefully studying the words. Not sure public libraries are quite as eclectic these days but thankfully they were when I needed them to be.

3. Lili Marlene / Marlene Dietrich – superb song from an admirable singer. German is such a beautiful language and this song is an opportunity to wallow in it.

4. Nelle tue mani / Andrea Bocelli – an uplifting song in another beautiful language. Part of the soundtrack of the film Gladiator.

5. Ciaconna / Sylvius Leopold Weiss – Weiss was a genius on the lute and composed some pieces of extraordinary beauty. This soaring piece is a gem to listen to and play as a guitar transcription.

6. O magnum mysterium / Morten Lauridsen – first heard this coming out of the atmospheric candlelight at the Bishop Grandison Christmas Eve service in Exeter Cathedral. Simply beautiful as only choral music can be.

8. Elevazione / Domenico Zipoli – I love the cello and love and play the oboe. This superb piece combines both.

7. Wachet auf / Johann Sebastian Bach – Almost anything by the über-genius JSB could be on this list. This is an longtime favourite that lifts the spirit to the skies.

9. Et in spiritu sancto from B minor Mass / Johann Sebastian Bach – Another JSB, this one from the fabulous B-minor mass, a movement that combines voice and the mellow coziness of baroque oboes.

10. Alexandra Leaving / Leonard Cohen and Sharon Robinson – the best concert of its kind I have ever been to was given by the venerable Leonard Cohen at the O2 arena. He performed this beauty with Sharon Robinson. The poetry of the words of Cohen’s songs, like Dylan’s and a few others stay with you.