Main content

Music in Its Time - Handel: Music for the Royal Fireworks

Episode 10 of 10

Stephen Johnson considers the first performance of Handel's Royal Fireworks, a state-of-the-art night of entertainment with mechanical wonders, pyrotechnics and a massive orchestra.

Stephen Johnson considers how five seminal pieces of music would have been appreciated by the audiences who heard them first. He probes the societies and cultures that shaped the experience of those original listeners to reveal what our modern ears might be missing.

The British love a grand Royal celebration and this one promised to be spectacular: a state-of-the-art, open-air entertainment with mechanical wonders, pyrotechnics and a massive orchestra led by London's own George Frederick Handel. The music he wrote for the occasion has endured as one of his most popular works, meaning those 'Royal Fireworks' continue to live in our imagination. But what really happened that night?

Available now

15 minutes

Last on

Fri 4 Mar 2016 22:45

Broadcast

  • Fri 4 Mar 2016 22:45

Death in Trieste

Death in Trieste

A 1760s murder still informs ideas about aesthetics, a certain sort of sex, and death.

Watch: My Deaf World

Watch: My Deaf World

Five compelling experiences of what it is like to be deaf in 21st-century Britain.

The Book that Changed Me

Five figures from the arts and science introduce books that changed their lives and work.

Download The Essay

Download The Essay

Download all the episodes from the series and listen at your leisure.

Podcast