Maite Arruabarrena, Konrad Junghanel - Symphonia Angelica (1998)

This disc, originally made in 1989 and led by early music pioneer Konrad Junghänel, stands up well and was a strong candidate for reissue. The Symphonia Angelica of the title was a printed madrigal collection issued by Hubert Waelrant, who was also a composer and included his own effort, Tra romor tamburi. That piece, and all the others, are Italian madrigals, and the disc provides a fair cross-section of Italian madrigals as they became famous across Europe and in England, where they stimulated the creation of the works still taken up every year by high school choirs and glee clubs. The madrigals are mostly in four or five parts, and Junghänel varies his forces nicely; some are accompanied with viols or his own lute, while others are sung unaccompanied, and the group slightly shifts with each new work -- an eminently reasonable solution. The singers involved aren't virtuosi but blend nicely, with accurate intonation. The repertoire is the most attractive feature of the performance.