Music for the Royal Fireworks made clear to Handel that King George had a preference for only martial instruments and drums, and hoped there would be "no fiddles". Handel omitted the string instruments against his will. Also against Handel's will, there was a full rehearsal of the music in Vauxhall Gardens and not in Green Park. On 21 April 1749 an audience, claimed to be over twelve thousand people, each paying two shillings and six pence (half a crown) rushed to get there, causing a three-hour traffic jam of carriages on London Bridge, the only vehicular route to the area south of the river. Six
Radius (music ensemble) works: † These works were performed in celebration of the 50th birthday of British composer Simon Holt. Radius (music ensemble) Radius is a London music ensemble founded in 2007 by the British composer Tim Benjamin. The ensemble specialises in the performance of new music from around the world (though primarily in the Western classical music tradition) written by living composers and 20th-century masters. The ensemble's artistic director is the British composer Ian Vine, a contemporary of Tim Benjamin at the Royal Northern College of Music from 1994 to 1997. Modelled on the 1960s ensemble The Fires of London, (which in