Oswald von Wolkenstein: politician, diplomat, castle owner, Knight of the Reign and bon vivant... these were his "main professions". Today, he is primarily known for his most important "hobby": he was a poet, musician and composer, a fine singer and player of diverse instruments and, ostensibly, mastered about ten languages. Alongside rarely heard pieces, Ensemble Leones presents a series of premiere recordings: these range from multilingual "macaronic" Lieder and travel descriptions to true musical gems.

 

A PDF to an English translation of all of Oswald's song texts. Refer to "Kl" numbers to find the texts from this recording.

 

Els Janssens-Vanmunster (B/F) - voice

Miriam Andersén (S) - voice, harp, cow horn, rattle

Tobie Miller (CAN/CH) - voice, hurdy-gurdy

Baptiste Romain (F/CH) - vielle, bagpipes

Marc Lewon (D) - voice, plectrum lute, cetra, cielle; direction

Guest:
Liane Ehlich (D/CH) - medieval transverse flute

 

A complete English translation of all sung text can be found in:  Classen, Albrecht: The Poems of Oswald von Wolkenstein. An English Translation of the Complete Works (1376/77-1445), New York: Palgrave Macmillan 2008 (The New Middle Ages), pp. 151-2 (track 01), 96-100 (track 04), 167 (track 05), 79-82 (track 06), 134-5 (track 07), 157-8 (track 09), 217-8 (track 11), 66-7 (track 12), 153-5 (track 14), 174-5 (track 15), 216-7 (track 16).

 

A coproduction with Swiss Radio (SRF 2) and Schloss Tirol.

Link to the website of the Christophorus-Label.

 

Additional information about the recording: