In 1723, when Hamburg, Germany’s officials wanted music for a celebration of the city’s maritime heritage, they turned to their famous local composer, Georg Philipp Telemann. The Overture he gave them captured the motion and character of Hamburg’s main waterway, the River Elbe, from musical portraits of mythological water spirits to the stomping dances of local boatmen.
Telemann’s “Water Music: Hamburg, Ebb and Flow” is the centerpiece of Arcadia Players’ final concert of the season. Also on the program are overtures by two of Telemann’s contemporaries, Johann Caspar Fischer and Johann Bernhard Bach (J.S. Bach’s cousin). Andrus Madsen directs the Arcadia Players ensemble. Please join us on Saturday for an afternoon of joyous, rousing music.

