It's the 1700s and you're sipping a glass of champagne.

Beautiful music is playing through the open air, and you listen to the instruments while cruising gently down the river with your friends. It's a scene fit for a king, which is exactly why George Frideric Handel composed Water Music. King George I commissioned this soundtrack for an outdoor party on the River Thames, and enjoyed it so much he told the musicians to play it over and over again. It still fits the bill for a delightful occasion some three centuries on.

The MSO has turned this event into a miniature Baroque festival because they're graced with the presence of Kristian Bezuidenhout, an Australian keyboard player and early music specialist now based in London. He'll play his own harpsichord arrangement of a piece from J.S. Bach's The Art of Fugue.

Listen out for two more of Bach's pieces on this program, alongside Handel's stately Concerto Grosso and richly coloured overture to the opera Admeto.

Pre-Concert Talk

Want to learn more about the music being performed? Arrive early for an informative and entertaining pre-concert talk at 6:45pm.