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Fiori musicali (Latin: Musical flowers ) was a Baroque orchestra, which was dedicated to the historical performance practice. The ensemble was founded in 1978 by Thomas Albert. The core musicians were from the Bremen area, which has been extended to international artists. The name of the ensemble (Musical Flower) was a popular title of early Baroque composition collections, such as the Fiori musicali by Girolamo Frescobaldi (1635), and served as a program: for example, the ensemble began its way with Italian violin music of the time of Monteverdi in solo and small occupations. The founding members included apart from Thomas Albert (Baroque violin), Niklas Trüstedt (viola da gamba), Stephen Stubbs (Baroque lute) and Gerhard Kastner (Continuo). From 1980 to 1982, Cleveland Johnson was continuo player. They performed orchestral music by Muffat, Arcangelo Corelli and Antonio Vivaldi. Later , the orchestra was expanded to include wind and reflected the cast of Baroque chapels.
Fiori musicali gave concerts in many Western European countries and the USA. As one of the first Baroque ensembles they used Meantone-based tuning and performed the Grands Motets by Henry Desmarest at the Chapelle de Versailles in the French Kammerton. Concerts with the Koor Groningse Bachvereniging were important stations for the early music movement in the Netherlands, including J.S. Bach's Johannes-Passion (BWV 245) (1979) and George Frideric Handel's Israel in Egypt (1984).
In the programmes of Fiori musicali were North German Baroque cantatas, including the complete works of Georg Böhm, Nicolaus Bruhns, Franz Tunder and Vincent Lübeck. They were the first to perform in modern times Das Jüngste Gericht by Dietrich Buxtehude, as well as other Baroque operas, including G.F. Handel's Almira and Rameau's Castor et Pollux and La garland and Reinhard Keiser's Masaniello furioso .
The last recordings of Fiori musicali were made in the late 1990’s, the last concerts were held in 2001. |
