Volume 8
Royal Festivals

GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDELThe greatest Baroque Composers:

George Frideric Handel
- Music for the Royal Fireworks
- Water Music
- Solomon: Arrival of the Queen of Sheba

ENGLISH BAROQUE SOLOISTS
conducted by JOHN ELIOT GARDINER

CD 454 410-2 DDD
PHILIPS

- Actually it was meant to be little more than a private party: in July 1717 King George I invited some of his courtiers to accompany him on a boat journey down the Thames. Alongside his boat, festively decorated and laden with food and drink, floated the barge with his 50 or so musicians. Whenever the monarch wished for music, court music director Handel gave the sign: fashionable French dances, popular English melodies and brilliant festive pieces from what has since been called the "Water" Music delighted both the ruler and the many trippers who were rowing behind them, turning the riverboat party into a public event. The Fireworks Display of 1749, arranged by George II following the Peace of Aachen, was certainly intended to be a public event. But 101 cannons drowned even the sound of Handel's mammoth orchestra, and when some of the fireworks fell into the crowd, panic broke out. The party ended in chaos.