Concert on the River Thames

The Water Music is a collection of orchestral movements composed by George Frideric Handel that premiered in the summer on July 17, 1717 when King George I requested a concert on the River Thames. The concert was performed by 50 musicians playing on a barge close to the royal barge from which the King listened with some close friends. George I was said to have loved it so much that he ordered the exhausted musicians to play the suites three times on the trip.