Fireworks by Handel
Season
2023/2024
Fireworks & Water Music by Handel
Almost twenty years ago, in 2004, Hervé Niquet received the Edison Award for his musicological and organological work with Le Concert Spirituel on Handel's Water Music and Royal Fireworks. This programme has been touring ever since, winning over new audiences every season.
Cast
Le Concert Spirituel Orchestra
Hervé Niquet Direction
Programme
Marc-Antoine Charpentier
Marches pour les trompettes
Prélude duTe DeumH. 146
George Frideric Handel
Water Music
Suite n° I en Fa HWV 348
Suite n° 2 en Ré HWV 349
Intermission
Arcangelo Corelli
Concerto grosso op. 6 n° 8 « Christmas Concerto » (Fatto per la notte di natale)
George Frideric Haendel
Water Music
Suite n° 3 en Sol HWV 350
Music for the Royal Fireworks HWV 351
Ouverture, Bourrée, La Paix, La Réjouissance, Menuet I & II
Production
Le Concert Spirituel
Duration
1h20
with intermission
Photo credit
Le Concert Spirituel au Festival Berlioz 2017 © Festival Berlioz
Additional information
Depending on the venue, fireworks may accompany the programme.
"After almost fifty years of musicological, organological and scientific research, the various parameters available to us for performing the Baroque repertoire are becoming increasingly precise. So why shouldn't we have more confidence in the results of this research? The one hundred (!!!) musicians gathered around Handel's Water Music and Fireworks suites, for the 15th anniversary of Le Concert Spirituel, wanted to put into practice, without any compromise, what they knew of these ancient techniques, each in his own speciality". Hervé Niquet
Hervé Niquet and Le Concert Spirituel present the flagship programme of their repertoire. Touring the world and the most prestigious venues, this exceptional production, winner of the Edison Award, is an opportunity for the ensemble to continue exploring all the facets and nuances of two of the most illustrious works in the Baroque repertoire: Handel's Water Music & Music for the Royal Fireworks.
At the cutting edge of the latest organological research on string instruments and winds, Le Concert Spirituel has acquired its distinctive sound, its dynamism and its bright, shimmering colours, thanks in particular to the use of unspun gut strings of equal tension. It has rediscovered all the power and fullness of sound of the old instruments, bringing back to life the magic of princely festivities in the purest Baroque tradition.
This programme was recorded on the Glossa label >> Water Music & Fireworks (historic first version)
Pour découvrir des anecdotes sur cet enregistrement, écoutez l'épisode des « Disques de légende » de Lionel Esparza du 15 septembre 2023 sur France Musique >>podcast