The new CD Water & Fire will be released on February 12, together with a concert at Rudolfinum, where the CD will also be available for sale. After the concert, there will be an autograph session with our conductor Václav Luks.
On February 12th we will also launch the possibility to buy the CD via our e-shop.
We Handeled it with you!
Thank you to all of you who have supported the creation of the iconic recording of G. F. Handel – Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks with Václav Luks and Collegium 1704!
You have contributed 218.000 CZK (€8. 720) to our CD budget of CZK 1,700,000 (€68.000). We appreciate your support immensely and are proud to have you as part of this unique project of Collegium 1704!
The CD Handel – Water & Fire will be released in February 2025 and will be presented as part of the Royal Firework Concert on 12 February 2025 at the Rudolfinum, where both works will be performed live. We look forward to seeing you there! Currently the last tickets are on sale. After that, the CD will be available on our e-shop and we will send out rewards to donors.
Thank you for being a part of a recording of music for the King!
Both works are bursting with invention and exude an immense enjoyment of life.
George Frideric Handel composed Water Music in 1717, not long after he arrived in London. It’s fascinating how quickly he adapted to the taste of the London audience and combined English tradition with Italian and French influences. In this music written for open-air performances on the Thames, on one hand, we hear the evident influence of Henry Purcell. At the same time, Handel applied his own boundless imagination of a creator, who at the time already had dizzying success in Italy and was very well acquainted with current musical events in Europe.
The music for the Royal Fireworks stands at the opposite side of Handel’s career in London and was created at the end of the composer’s life, in 1749. Although the two works are more than 30 years apart, they were created under completely different circumstances and in entirely different life situations, they both overflow with inventive musical material and radiate the joy of life. Their performance is an immense pleasure for both the performers and the audience.
