Harmut Hein: baritone • Bernhard Böhm: recorder, transverse flutes, bagpipe, rauschpfeife • Jürgen Hübscher: renaissance lutes, vihuela, percussion (spoons) • Michael Spengler: viola da gamba
The Hedos Ensemble was established in 1988 for the purpose of performing ensemble music of the fifteenth to eighteenth centuries in various instrumentations. Singers (such as the baritone Hartmut Hein on this recording) and instrumentalists join the core group of instrumentalists as required in order to present an extensive as well as diverse repertoire of chamber music from the Renaissance to the Baroque. The name of the ensemble recalls hedonism, an ancient Greek doctrine which experienced a revival during the 18th century and was involved in the highly varied musical elaboration of the themes of joy and suffering. The members of the Hedos Ensemble feel that they live up to their name ('hedos' = delight, pleasure) in their playing style.
