Hull's City of Culture coup as BBC Proms to head north for the first time

Yet for the first time ever, the event billed the biggest classical music festival in the world is on the move outside the capital – to Hull.

Celebrating its spot in the limelight as City of Culture 2017, the Royal Northern Sinfonia will be performing a concert marking 300 years since Handel’s Water Music was first famously performed on the River Thames.

On July 17, 1717, George 1 was wafted down the river from Chelsea to Whitehall on his golden Royal barge, crammed with dukes and duchesses, as 50 musicians played on a vessel nearby.

He enjoyed the soothing music so much he asked the suites to be played three times over the course of the round trip. In its anniversary year the orchestra will perform in dry dock, converted into an open air theatre with a glorious vista of river and sky, at the point where the river Hull meets the mighty Humber.

With a capacity of just 350 – although people will be able to look on from various vantage points including a nearby bridge – Stage@theDock is tiny compared to the Royal Albert Hall, which seats 6,000.

There will be three performances on Saturday, July 22, with the repertoire covering every maritime theme, from storms and shipwrecks to calm seas and seductive sirens.

It will include Telemann’s Water Music Overture, Delius’s Summer Night on the River and Mendelssohn’s Calm and Prosperous Voyage. Suites no 2 and 3 of Handel’s Water Music will be performed.

If the weather does not perform to cue, there will be a canopy.

“We are playing excerpts from Grace Williams’s Sea Sketches – one of which we don’t want, which is High Wind”, said conductor Nicholas McGegan. “The other Calm Sea in Summer we prefer.”

Director of the Proms, David Pickard, said when they had been thinking about the anniversary of Handel’s Water Music it occurred to them that Hull was City of Culture – and it had water. He added: “We came up here and thought it’s perfect.

“It’s a very special year for Hull – and we were coming not to the obvious place. We are not in Manchester, Edinburgh or Cardiff – we are in Hull.”

The performance may well set a new trend for the Proms leaving London – although Mr Pickard said coming to Hull for the three performances was a huge logistical and financial investment.

This year, the Proms will also play at Southwark Cathedral, Wilton’s Music Hall and Peckham multi-storey car park – as well as a performance of contemporary music at the Tate.

Period performance specialist Mr McGegan has worked with the Gateshead-based Royal Northern Sinfonia for more than a decade.

Mr McGegan – two of whose ancestors were organists at Beverley Minster in the 18th and 19th centuries – said: “It’s the first Prom outside London in 123 years – it has taken a while.

“It’s the UK City of Culture and it’s great that the Proms come to Hull rather than the other way round.

“The RNS has a great feeling for musical style – whether it is of the 18th century, or something more recent.”

Tickets – priced at £6 – go on sale on May 13.