One of the best-known English compositions of all, the Water Music was nonetheless written by one German for the edification of another. The Elector of Hanover had recently ascended the English throne as George I, and it was for one of his spectacular royal boating parties in July 1717, during which several vast gilded barges navigated the waters of the Thames, that Handel, a recent German immigrant himself, wrote three suites to be played on board. Matching the splendour of the occasion with opulent orchestral music every bit as grand and sumptuous, this truly is music fit for a King.
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