Stavanger Festival: Water Music

Handel's 'Water Music' was performed for the first time on the water – up the Thames – when King George I, several aristocrats and officials sailed in the royal barge at Whitehall Palace on an excursion up towards Chelsea. Here another barge, with approximately 50 musicians, followed the King and his company as they performed Handel's music. Many Londoners went out to the river to hear the concert – and the King was so pleased with the music that...