Water Music
The Water Music is a collection of orchestral movements, often published as three suites, composed by George Frideric Handel. It premiered on 17 July 1717, in response to King George I's request for a concert on the River Thames.
Handel Festival, Halle
The first Handel Festival in Halle was conducted in 1922, three years after the Handel Festival in Göttingen. It showed the oratorios "Semele" and "Susanna", the opera "Orlando furioso" arranged by Hans Joachim Moser, and smaller works by Handel and other Halle composers of the 16th, 17th and 18th century. A "Händel-Gesellschaft" (Handel Society) was founded in 1925 and staged a second festival in 1929, directed by Hermann Abert. The 250th anniversary of the composer in 1935 was the occasion for a third festival, termed "Reichs-Händelgedenktage" by the Nazis. After World War II Erich Neuß, Max Schneider, Herbert Koch and others founded a "Hallische Händel-Gesellschaft" (Halle Handel Society), which organized a fourth festival in 1948 in collaboration with the Landestheater, the Evangelische Kirchenmusikschule (Academy of Protestant Church Music) and the Musikhochschule. It took place in the , completed shortly before.