One of Handel's most popular works, Handel incorporates dance music from all over Europe with great inventiveness and supreme elegance.
Handel's 'Water Music' was first performed on the water - up the Thames - when King George I, several aristocrats and officials took the royal barge at Whitehall Palace on an excursion up towards Chelsea. Here another barge, with around 50 musicians, followed the King and his party as they performed Handel's music. Many Londoners took to the river to hear the concert - and the King was so pleased with the music that he ordered it to be repeated at least three times, both on the trip upstream to Chelsea and on the return journey until he landed back at Whitehall.
It wasn't just the king who was pleased; Water Music is and always has been one of Handel's most popular works. And with good reason. For despite its entertaining nature, it is a masterpiece.
Typical of a Baroque orchestral suite, Water Music consists of a grand French-style overture, followed by a long series of dance movements; these movements are also often of French origin, such as minuet, sarabande and bourée. But with great ingenuity and supreme elegance, Handel also includes dances and traditions from other European musical traditions and from all walks of life. Thus, MON can also find Italian airs, English sea shanties and Scottish and Irish jigs. It's almost as if Handel wants to emphasize London's status as both the largest city in Europe and the capital of a multicultural empire.
"Water Music" is now collected and published in three suites, organized primarily by practicality. However, the music was most likely performed in a more arbitrary order as on the trip up and down the Thames. Therefore, in the same spirit, Concerto Copenhagen usually puts together a suite from Handel's Water Music for each performance, specially adapted to the occasion.
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