The 'Miserere' by Gregorio Allegri (1582-1652) has an almost mythical status. Allegri composed this simple harmonisation of Psalm 51 especially for the choir of the Sistine Chapel, where he was employed in the first half of the seventeenth century. In principle, only this choir was permitted to sing the work, but 'illegal' copies started circulating widely in the eighteenth century. The most famous illegal copy ever was produced in 1770 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: at the age of fourteen, after witnessing a performance of Allegri's 'Miserere' in the Sistine Chapel, he wrote down the entire piece entirely from memory, without missing a note. The reputation of the Tallis Scholars is mainly due to their flawless renditions of the polyphonic works of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525-1594). On account of the perfectly balanced interplay of its melodic lines, Palestrina's music is considered the classic example of sixteenth-century polyphony. But Palestrina also wrote touchingly emotional music, such as the introspective 'Stabat Mater' and the solemnly austere 'Lamentations'.