I used to discount a Capella singing as a little too ethereal, but after the discovery of Morten Lauridsen's O Magnum Mysterium, I have been obsessing back to Tallis, Schutz, Byrd, Allegri etc.
This is a piece with a fascinating "back story" or "history", which ever you prefer.
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorio_Allegri
The work acquired a considerable reputation for mystery and inaccessibility between the time of its composition and the era of modern recording; the Vatican, wanting to preserve its aura of mystery, forbade copies, threatening any publication or attempted copy with excommunication. They were not prepared, however, for a special visit in 1770 from a 14-year-old Mozart, who, on a visit to Rome with his father, heard it but twice and transcribed it faithfully from memory, thus creating the first "bootleg" copy.From http://ancientgroove.co.uk/essays/theories.html
Mozart also visited Padre Martini in Bologna prior to his attending the Holy Week performance in 1770. It was at this performance that he, at the age of 14, famously copied out the forbidden music. (He returned the next day to correct his score with his manuscript under his hat.)
Leopold, in a letter to his wife of 14th April, says:
You have often heard of the famous Miserere in Rome, which is so greatly prized that the performers are forbidden on pain of excommunication to take away a single part of it, copy it or give it to anyone. But we have it already. Wolfgang has written it down and we would have sent it to Salzburg in this letter, if it were not necessary for us to be there to perform it. But the manner of performance contributes more to its effect than the composition itself. Moreover, as it is one of the secrets of Rome, we do not wish to let it fall into other hands.
In the summer of that year, Mozart composed his own Miserere, K85, which was influenced by what he had heard.
The above legends are interesting and worth about $1.
The music itself...priceless.
