The centerpiece of this program of Renaissance and modern music is Allegri’s Miserere. The work was exclusively sung by the Sistine Chapel Choir, though legend says that a 14-year old Mozart visited Rome and wrote out the piece perfectly from memory after just one hearing, sending the Vatican’s guarded secret into the world. The psalm setting is famously known for a high C, sung by a soprano soloist. 

The program also features two elaborate psalm settings by English Renaissance composers Robert White and John Sheppard and motets by modern composers John Tavener, Eric Whitacre, and Arvo Pärt.