"Soft Voices: Stabat Mater"

One of the most famous settings of the penitential psalm Miserere comes from the Italian priest and composer Gregorio Allegri. Written in 1627 exclusively for the Sistine Chapel in Rome, it was strictly forbidden for the performing musicians at that time to copy or distribute the notes. However, in 1770, the then fourteen-year-old Wolfgang Amadé Mozart defied this prohibition, which brought even greater fame to the work: After attending a performance of the piece during Holy Week in Rome, he transcribed it from memory. In the atmospheric setting of the Old Cathedral in Linz, the Swiss ensemble Voces Suaves complements Allegri's Miserere with additional masterpieces of sacred Italian vocal music from composers of the Baroque period such as Alessandro Scarlatti, Antonio Lotti, and Domenico Scarlatti.