This is a 2 CD set, CD #1 has 71 minutes of Italian madrigals, CD #2 has 55 minutes of English madrigals. Perhaps the most important secular musical development of the 16th century, the madrigal had its fullest flowering in Italy, where Franco-Flemish composers Phillippe Verdelot, Adrian Willaert and Jacques Arcadelt, born in northern Europe, spent their working lives. In England Thomas Morley, John Wilbye and Thomas Weelkes succeeded in producing some real masterpieces. There are 26 cuts on disc #1, all in Italian, "Cantiam lieti cantiamo," "Una leggiadra nimpha," "Con l'angelica riso," "Donne, venete al ballo"‹all flow like sweet water from this talented, precise British sextet. Disc 2 has 22 cuts, all in English: Morley's "April is in my mistress' face," Wilbye's "Sweet honey sucking bees," Weelkes' "O care thou wilt dispatch me," Orlando Gibbons' "The Silver Swan"‹and they are equally fine. Recommended.

Listen to The Silver Swanne in RealAudio.