' Handel's Own Harpsichord
Alan Ivimey
One day in 1852 a piano-tuner of Winchester sold an old, worn-out-looking harpsichord to a British firm of piano manufacturers.
That old instrument, which once belonged to Handel himself, is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum. On the way to the room where it stands in its glass case can be seen the splendid scarlet State Barge built for Frederick Prince of Wales in 1732. It was in noble craft like this that the court of George I listened to Handel's Water Music, and it was quite probably on this harpsichord that the music was composed.
Alan Ivimey , author and journalist, is going to tell you about the harpsichord, and the barge, and about an old city shop-front which stands close behind it. He will broadcast again tomorrow, this time on the subject of beacons.