The famous Music for the Royal Fireworks was composed in 1749 by Georg Friedrich Handel for the festivities in honor of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle.
On this occasion, King George II asked Handel to compose festive music to accompany a grand fireworks display on the Thames. Handel was then a living legend in England, and the sumptuous music he composed made a huge impression on the audience. Expectations were high, and 12,000 people crowded into the rehearsal, causing numerous incidents. The official performance on April 27, 1749, created a new musical order: around eighty instrumentalists came together to perform Handel's masterpiece in an “open-air” version: wind and percussion instruments were featured, but no string instruments, thus creating enough sound power to rival the explosions!
