Did you know?:
On Wednesday 17 July 1717, in the evening, King George I hosted a party where a large gathering of the English nobility boarded open barges on the river Thames at Whitehall and sailed up river to Chelsea. Such was the success of the evening that the party did not leave until three o’clock in the morning, the King arriving back at St James’s Palace at about half-past four! One of the river barges (according to a report in the Daily Courant of 19 July) "was employ’d for the Musick, wherein were 50 instruments of all sorts play’d... the finest Symphonies, compos’d express for this Occasion, by Mr Hendel: which his Majesty liked so well, that he caus’d it to be plaid over three times in going and returning’. The instruments employed included trumpets, horns, oboes, bassoons, German flutes, French flutes (recorders), violins and basses, and each of the three performances lasted an hour. Historiand believe that what the royal party heard that evening was the world premiere of Handel’s Water Music.
