Although the church music oeuvre of Jacobus Gallus is extensive, little is known about the life of the composer, who died in Prague at the age of 40. His works are an outstanding example of the music of the Catholic Counter-Reformation: textually intelligible, meditative and dramatic at the same time.

On the night from Holy Saturday to Easter Sunday, a completely unknown setting of Jeremiah's Lamentations from the Old Testament will be staged in the dark church Am Hohenzollernplatz, lit only by candlelight. Under the direction of Stefan Schuck, the vocal ensemble sirventes berlin will render the haunting "Lamentationes" authentically, according to Renaissance performance techniques.