Palestrina: Il primo libro di madrigali

The Primo Libro di Madrigali a quatro voci was, chronologically speaking, the second work published by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. On the publication’s title page the composer refers to himself as «Cantore nella Cappella di N[ostro] S[ignore]», a title which in Rome at that time represented the highest position to which a musician might aspire. The highly regarded Concerto Italiano and their founder-director Rinaldo Alessandrini perform these light, lovely and expressive secular songs from the Renaissance’s greatest sacred music composer.