River Thames
The Water Music composed by George Frideric Handel premiered on 17 July 1717, when King George I requested a concert on the River Thames. The concert was performed for King George I on his barge and he is said to have enjoyed it so much that he ordered the 50 exhausted musicians to play the suites three times on the trip.
Handel and Haydn Society
The Society has performed Handel's "Messiah" annually since 1854. It gave the first United States performances of Verdi's "Requiem" in 1878, just four years after its world premiere, and of Handel's "Joshua" on Easter Sunday 1876. The first works by American composers appeared in the Society's 1874 programs: "St. Peter" by John Knowles Paine and the "Forty-sixth Psalm" by Dudley Buck. In 1892, the Society presented the premiere of the Mass in E flat by Amy Beach, a youthful work by the first important female American composer. Critics condemned the H+H performance of the Berlioz Te Deum in 1888 as the work of "a musical crank".