Handel’s festive Water Music springs to life with an infectious sense of joy and celebration in this January, 2016 live performance featuring the Akademie für alte Musik Berlin at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw.
This has to be some of the most enduring and magical party music ever written. As I outlined in a previous post, this collection of three Baroque dance suites was written for King George I’s pleasure excursion up the Thames River on the evening of July 17, 1717. As the boats of onlookers jammed the river, around 50 musicians performed this music on a barge. Now, 300 years after the party, it’s Handel’s music which lives on.
The Water Music contains euphoric trumpet and drum highs- this Allegro and the Alla hornpipe– as well as moments of intimate beauty like this Minuet. Here is the complete performance:
Recordings
- Handel: Water Music, Akademie für alte Musik Berlin, Georg Kallweit Amazon
Photograph by Kristof Fischer