Handel Music for the Royal Fireworks

In our tumultuous modern era, the pleasures of German Baroque music offer a refined, soothing balm. Ivars Taurins conducts a program that includes Handel’s bright-hued Music for the Royal Fireworks, written for King George II to celebrate the end of the War of the Austrian Succession, as well as his stately Organ Concerto, composed for performances at Covent Garden. Telemann’s Wassermusik pays tribute to Hamburg and its river, the Elbe. Telemann portrays mythological figures like tritons and naiads before turning to the city’s “merry boat-people.” The Sinfonia in G Minor by Hasse, best known for his role in developing opera seria, stirs up a whirlwind with energetic strings.