Václav Luks conducts Handel's Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks

What better way to accompany royal pomp than with majestic music? Discover Handel’s famous orchestral suites Water Music (1717) and Music for the Royal Fireworks (1749) in a refined performance by acclaimed conductor Václav Luks and his Baroque ensemble, Collegium 1704.

On July 17, 1717, King George I organized a royal boat ride on the Thames. Following in his wake, a barge carrying no fewer than 50 musicians conducted by Handel himself played the work he had composed for the occasion: Water Music. Three orchestral movements successively accompanied the evening’s highlights: the journey up the Thames, the King’s supper at Lord Ranelagh’s, and the sovereign’s return to St James’s. Three decades later, George II commissioned Handel to compose music to accompany the grand fireworks display celebrating the end of the War of the Austrian Succession. The event, marred by rain, was a disaster, but Music for the Royal Fireworks has gone down in history. The memorable themes and brilliant orchestration of these two suites make them essential works by one of the greatest composers of the Baroque period.

Photo © David Konecny