Event

Music for the Royal Fireworks

The celebratory and joyous music of Georg Frideric Handel opens our 41st season. The Music for the Royal Fireworks, commissioned by King George II in June, 1749, accompanied the fireworks that were part of the celebration of the end of the War of the Austrian Succession. Over twelve thousand people attended the dress rehearsal at Vauxhall! Twenty years ago, the work was played for the reunification of East and West Germany; our performance of the piece on October 10 celebrates that anniversary.
The Dettingen Te Deum, also by Handel, is a triumphant work celebrating another military victory - this one over the French in the small Bavarian town of Dettingen in 1743. The music is at once festive, exciting, moving, and compassionate and it represents some of the finest choral and orchestral writing by Handel, a master of the genre.
This concert will also feature the winner of the Seattle University Music Department's Concerto Competition, violist Alex Takasugi playing Hoffmeister's Viola Concerto.
To round out the program, Orchestra Seattle joins with harpsichordist Lisa Lewis for the deservedly popular Fifth Brandenburg Concerto. Ms. Lewis is an exciting performer, and will dazzle your ears with her bold, assertive and accomplished playing.