A birthday party for the king - Music at the court of Frederick the Great 

On January 24, 1758, Frederick II celebrated his 46th birthday – and we are joining!

Musicians from the Royal Court Orchestra perform, and of course Johann Gottlieb Graun, who played music with Frederick when he was still crown prince, is concertmaster for the special occasion. Works by Germany's most gifted composers are being performed and didn’t the late Johann Sebastian Bach once consecrate a "musical offering" to the king, in which he transformed a theme given to him by Frederick to all the rules of his art? With Georg Philipp Telemann, the flair of the big wide world comes from the Hanseatic city of Hamburg. But music isn't everything: there's dancing, laughing and playing, as befits a royal party. And Frederick's revered flute master and musical father figure Johann Joachim Quantz leads the celebrations as maître de plaisir.