Towards the end of his life Handel wrote a number of works for public occasions that exploit the spectacular effects obtainable from a large orchestra of trumpets, horns, oboes, bassoons strings and continuo. This programme brings together the popular Music for the Royal Fireworks, written for a firework display in Green Park in 1749, with two of the rarely-heard Concerti a due cori, scored for two antiphonal wind bands with strings. It will also include the brilliant overture to TheOccasional Oratorio (1746), scored for three trumpets and timpani with orchestra, and the ‘Concerto for Trumpets and Horns’ a fascinating early version of the Fireworks Music.