Georg Friedrich Händel: Music for the Royal Fireworks&Water Music

England became the second home of George Frideric Handel, who was born in Halle in 1685, as well as Johann Sebastian Bach and Domenico Scarlatti. To this day, the English consider Handel as one of their own, having written his most important works, such as the operas Julius Caesar and Xerxes, or the Oratory of the Messiah in London, where he lived for almost half a century until his death in 1759. For a short time, the Elector of Hanover was his employer, who became English king in 1714 and also appreciated the art of his former court Kapellmeister in his new home. During a royal boating on the Thames in the summer of 1717 the water music sounded and George I fell so well that she had to be repeated twice that same evening.

“Founded in 1959 by Neville Marriner and an array of London musicans, the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields has long been one of the world's leading chamber orchestras.” — Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Sir Neville Marriner