In the summer of 1717, after performing his Water Music during a royal cruise on the Thames, Handel began composing for James Brydges (1674-1744), who became the first Duke of Chandos and created the Cannons Concert at his estate in Cannons. Handel composed eleven anthems and a Te Deum for him, as well as transposing and revising As pants the hart. O sing unto the Lord a new song is an adaptation of an anthem written three years earlier for the Chapel Royal; Have mercy upon me, O God is a paraphrase of the “Miserere”; and the “Alleluia” of Let God arise prefigures the famous Hallelujah chorus from Messiah. The four anthems are performed by Arcangelo under the direction of Jonathan Cohen, Artistic Director of the Handel and Haydn Society (Boston) and Artistic Advisor to the London Handel Festival, where Arcangelo is Ensemble-in-Residence.