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Three Hundred Years of Water Music

The 2017 season of specially selected broadcasts from the ѿý Proms opens with a celebration of one of Handel’s best-loved works

George Frideric Handel: Water Music – Suite No. 3 in G major
Jean-Philippe Rameau: Naïs – Overture
Grace Williams: Sea Sketches – High Wind, Calm Sea in Summer
George Frideric Handel: Water Music – Suite No. 2 in D Major
Iain Farrington: A Ship Shape Shin-dig

Royal Northern Sinfonia
Nicholas McGegan (conductor)

Handel's Water Music was first heard in public 300 years ago, performed by about 50 musicians squeezed into a barge on the river Thames. The music was such a success that it was repeated twice more that very night, and the Proms audience at this riverside concert given at the Stage@TheDock in Hull, the 2017 UK City of Culture, was equally appreciative.

To introduce the Prom ѿý Radio 3's Clemency Burton-Hill is joined by Oxford University professor Suzanne Aspden whose work focuses on 18th Century music in Britain.

(Photo: The prom at the Stage@TheDock in Hull. Credit: Les Gibbon/ѿý)

53 minutes

Last on

Sun 30 Jul 2017 11:06GMT

Music Played

  • George Frideric Handel

    Water Music – Suite No. 3 in G major

    Performer: Royal Northern Sinfonia. Conductor: Nicholas McGegan.
  • Jean‐Philippe Rameau

    Naïs – Overture

    Performer: Royal Northern Sinfonia. Conductor: Nicholas McGegan.
  • Grace Williams

    Sea Sketches – High Wind, Calm Sea in Summer

    Performer: Royal Northern Sinfonia. Conductor: Nicholas McGegan.
  • George Frideric Handel

    Water Music – Suite No. 2 in D Major

    Performer: Royal Northern Sinfonia. Conductor: Nicholas McGegan.
  • Iain Farrington

    A Ship Shape Shin-dig

    Performer: Royal Northern Sinfonia. Conductor: Nicholas McGegan.

Broadcasts

  • Sat 29 Jul 2017 18:06GMT
  • Sun 30 Jul 2017 11:06GMT