Celesti Fiori
is a Basel-based ensemble dedicated to both secular and sacred music of the 17th century. Founded by Henry Van Engen, Maria Morozova and Clément Gester, who met during their studies at the Schola Cantorum in Basel, their aim is to convey their enthusiasm for this dramatic and contrasting repertoire, its close relationship to the text and the colourful, improvised ornaments to audiences. In keeping with the spirit of this music, the core members are multi-instrumentalists, wether with cornetto and recorder, voice and trombone or organ and harpsichord. This enables the ensemble to play a number of nearly forgotten instruments.
Additionally, the audience experiences a wide variety of timbre combinations that make up the charm of this music, from 3 brass instruments with organ to 2 recorders, voice and harpsichord, and all combinations in between. With a colorful tone-palette and historical performance practice at the center of their work, Celesti Fiori attaches great importance to playing with full-sized organs and performing from balconies in a multi-choir setting, which fundamentally changes the sound of the ensemble.
The ensemble is named after the eponymous 1619 collection by Alessandro Grandi, which forms a part of the ensemble's core repertoire, ‘Celesti Fiori’.
Ensemble for 17th Century Music
Musicians
Clément Gester
Cornetto & Recorder
Already at the age of four, Clément Gester played his first notes on the recorder. After additionally studying piano, organ and composition at the Conservatoire of Strasbourg, his birth city, he completed a Bachelor’s degree in Susanna Borsch’s class at the Musikhochschule Trossingen and a Master’s degree at the Escuela Superior de Música de Cataluña in Barcelona with Pedro Memelsdorff.
Beginning in 2017, Clément studied cornetto with Frithjof Smith at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, where he finished his bachelor’s degree in 2020 and subsequently his master’s degree in 2022, both of which he complemented with numerous courses and masterclasses. He performs regularly with ensembles such as Abendmusiken Basel, Ensemble Pygmalion, Le Parlement de Musique, Le Poème Harmonique, Cappella Mediterranea, I Fedeli, Capricornus Ensemble, Vox Luminis, Bach-Akademie Stuttgart, Concerto Stella Matutina, l’Arpa Festante, the European Hanse Ensemble, Ensemble 1684 and is co-founder of the ETC Consort, a recorder ensemble with whom he explores French and Italian music around 1500 and Basler Blockflötenband, an eclectic group with whom he recorded a humoristic CD in 2022. Clément has recorded with SWR, NDR, Deutschlandfunk, France Musique, Ricercar, CPO, Linn and Alhambra Records. He has appeared in renowned festivals and venues such as ReRenaissance Basel, Goldberg Festival, Oude Muziek Utrecht, Elbphilharmonie, La Philharmonie de Paris, Konzerthaus Wien, Muziekgebouw Amsterdam, La Chapelle Royale de Versailles and Actus Humans Gdansk.
Also a musicologist, Clément’s publications include his first master’s thesis A forgotten piece of the late repertoire with recorder consort: Ich bin schwartz, Samuel Capricornus and his second, a critical edition of Ignazio Donati’s second collection of solo-motets. He was also employed as a research assistant from 2016 to 2018 to Prof. Dr. Nicole Schwindt at the Musikhochschule Trossingen. From 2020 to 2022, Clément took part in a musicological research project about small serpents in collaboration with the Musikhochschule and the Hochschule für Technik Basel.
Henry Van Engen
Tenor & Trombone
Receiving his first musical training on the piano at age 5, Henry began his bachelor studies as a solo pianist at the age of 17. After switching to trombone, Henry completed his bachelor’s degree in solo trombone at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in 2015. The same year, Henry moved to Europe and was a member of the Philharmonic Orchestra of Mainz for the 2015-2016 season, in addition to completing a master’s degree in solo trombone at the Musikhochschule Trossingen in 2018. His specialization in historical performance practice began at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in 2015 with Charles Toet, culminating in a Master of Historical Trombone in 2021 with Catherine Motuz and his successful master’s thesis “Italianische Manier”: the Italian Filiation of Ornamentation Descriptions in Praetorius's Syntagma Musicum III (1619).
In 2023, Henry completed a Specialized Master of Renaissance Studies in Voice at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis with Katarina Livljanić. Henry’s research project Johann Andreas Herbst’s Musica Practica: Developing a Functional Ornamentation Language was sponsored by the research department of the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis and contains the first English translation of Herbst’s landmark treatise Musica Practica (1642), to be published in 2025. In 2024, Henry was an Artist-in-Residence at Schloss Weißenbrunn, together with harpsichordist Rafaela Salgado.
Henry plays and sings regularly with important ensembles such as Concerto Scirocco, I Fedeli, die Innsbrucker Hofmusik, Le Miroir de Musique, La Fonte Musica, ReRenaissance Basel, Castello Consort, Ensemble Peregrina, Capella Helvetica, Ensemble La Chimera, Margaretha Consort, Capriccio Barockorchester, European Hanse Ensemble, Les Haulz et les Bas and Cappella Marciana, the professional ensemble of St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice. He can be heard on numerous CDs by Ricercar, Outhere, Raumklang and Amadeus and his first solo CD «Imperial Arias» with Le Filigrane will be released in Spring 2025, featuring recently rediscovered ornate arias from the Viennese court of the early 18th century for mezzo-soprano, alto and tenor trombone and organ. Henry’s scholarly transcriptions are published by Septenary Editions.
Maria Morozova-Meléndez
Organ & Harpsichord
Maria Morozova-Meléndez began her musical studies on the piano in Ukraine, afterwards completing a bachelor’s degree at the P. Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of Ukraine in Kyiv. In 2006 during her post-graduate studies in harpsichord at the National Music Academy, she founded the ensemble 'Perola Barroca' and also began playing with various European ensembles as a continuo player.
In 2008, Maria moved to Basel, Switzerland, to study harpsichord at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis with Jörg-Andreas Bötticher and in 2011 began post-graduate studies in church music and organ in Luzern, Switzerland. In 2015, she was appointed choir conductor and organist at St. Peter and Paul Erschwil, Switzerland, where she performs on the J. J. Brosy French organ from 1788, as well as at the Catholic church in Büsserach. She is the president of the association “Freundinnen und Freunde Brosy- Orgel Erschwil”, which organizes a concert series with the historical J. J. Brosy-Organ.
Since 2016, she has been a member of the Swiss association “Cornetto Revival”, performing and recording as a harpsichordist and organist for ornamentation courses, CD recordings and symposiums. Since 2019, teaches courses and workshops in historical performance practice, improvisation, and historical temperament at the Music Academies of Kyiv and Lviv (Ukraine) and the Haliciana Schola Cantorum (Switzerland/Ukraine).
Maria is a sought-after soloist and continuo player, specializing in the music of 15th to 17th centuries. She performs with well-known ensembles such as I Fedeli, Per-Sonat, Canto Fiorito, Giardino di Delizie, and The Ecoes of Loreley.
Program 1
LUCE SOAVISSIMA
Giovanni Gabrieli (1554-1612)
Intonazione del primo tuono
Giovanni Picchi (1571-1643)
Canzon ottava à 3
Alessandro Grandi (1586-1630)
O quam speciosa à 3
Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1643)
Capriccio sopra il Cucho
Ignazio Donati (1570-1638)
O gloriosa Domina à 2
Dario Castello (1602-1631)
Sonata duodecima à 3
hymn alternatim organ and voice
according to time of year
Nicolò Corradini (1585-1646)
Prospera lux venit à 3
Giovanni Felice Sances (ca. 1600-1679)
Usurpator Tiranno
Giovani Rovetta (1596-1668)
Canzon seconda à 3
Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643)
Engratulemur hodie à 3
Instrumentation: 2 cornetti or recorders, 1 tenor or trombone and cembalo or organ.
With this programme, Celesti Fiori would like to give the audience a handful of ‘heavenly blossoms’: a series of small pieces, in different forms, different instrumentations, with different effects, which are intended to bring out the diversity of the music of the time.
It is precisely in constellations like this that multi-instrumentalists have their place, as they did back then. Both recorders and cornetti will be heard in the upper voices: what was commonplace at the time is original and fascinating for a modern audience. The fact that the tenor also knows how to play a trombone is not only normal in the Baroque period, but also makes sense: we know from old texts and descriptions from that time that wind instruments were inspired by singers.
Not only timbres but also forms and genres are varied in this programme. There are motets and canzonas, but also, for example, ostinati, pieces over a repeating bass. Other flowers from the early 17th century are the echo pieces, which were very fashionable at the time, or so-called alternatim pieces, in which the organ and the other instruments alternate for each verse. Our hope is that after the concert, listeners will not think of this music as a picture, but rather as a large mosaic, or even as a large bouquet of flowers.
Program length: ca. 56 minutes.
Program 2
FIORI VENEZIANI
Andrea Gabrieli (1533-1585)
Deus, qui beatum Marcum à 8
Giovanni Croce (1557-1609)
Ave Virga, sponsa Dei à 8
Giovanni Battista Grillo (1579-1622)
Canzon quartadecima à 4
Francesco Cavalli (1602-1676)
Plaudite, Cantate à 3
Claudio Merulo (1533-1603)
Ricercar del quarto tuono
Giovanni Gabrieli (1557-1612)
O Jesu mi dulcissime à 8
Alessandro Grandi (1568-1641)
Bone Jesu verbum Patris à 4
Francesco Usper (1561-1641)
Vulnera Domine à 3
Gioseffo Guami (1542-1679)
Canzon vigesimaquarta à 8
Giovani Rovetta (1596-1668)
Ave Maris stella à 3
Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643)
Magnificat à 6
Instrumentation: 4 voices, 2 cornetti or recorders, 2 trombones or dulcians and organ.
If the city of Venice is today seen as one of Italy's jewels that needs to be protected, in the late 16th and early 17th centuries it was one of the most powerful states in Europe, a republic of international importance on a military, commercial and cultural level. In particular when it came to music, la Serenissima was the leader on the entire continent; it dominated the music printing market and its institutions and star composers were among the avant-garde of the time.
A prime example of this is Giovanni Gabrieli, Heinrich Schütz's teacher, who contributed significantly to Venice's fame not only through the quality of his compositions, but also through his use and development of new techniques such as the cori spezzati or split choirs. These are spatially distributed vocal and instrumental groups that perform together, thanks to which composers could create more variety and drama. Of course choirs of voices are used, but also cornetto and trombone choirs, which were developing rapidly at that time, especially in San Marco.
In addition to Giovanni Gabrieli, this programme also features other Venetian composers who have left their mark on music history through their talent. Many of them worked at St. Mark’s Basilica, others at the Scuola San Rocco, San Salvador or other important institutions. This short walk through 17th century Venice spans three generations of composers from la Serenissima, from Claudio Merulo and Andrea Gabrieli (born around 1535) to Claudio Monteverdi and Alessandro Grandi (born around 1565) to Giovanni Rovetta and Francesco Cavalli (born around 1600). Along the way, the listener can collect musical blossoms from these masters, including from the collection Celesti Fiori or Heavenly Flowers by Alessandro Grandi, to which the ensemble owes its name.
Program length: ca. 63 minutes.
