Giorgio Dell'arti

Despite establishing the bel canto tradition through a series of romantic, serious operas (Otello, William Tell) and elegant buffas (the timeless Barber Of Seville) Gioacchino Rossini retired at 37 to live life as a Parisian bon vivant. Fortunately, Rossini (1792-1868) came out of retirement to complete the Stabat Mater, a choral masterpiece every bit as impressive as his more famous works. An expression of the Mediterranean belief in life and faith, this setting of the Stabat Mater is written for full orchestra with four soloists and chorus.

This record was a collaboration between Philip Oakey, the big-voiced lead singer of the techno-pop band the Human League, and Giorgio Moroder, the Italian-born father of disco who spent the '80s writing synth-based pop and film music. It is a testimony to Moroder's fame as a composer that he was able to earn equal billing with Oakey for a record he co-wrote and produced, but for which he supplied no more than "occasional synthesizers" as a musician. The music is not substantially different from the standard fare from the Human League or, for that matter, almost any other synth-based Europop band in the '80s.

The name of violinist and conductor Evaristo Felice Dall'Abaco does not necessarily spring to one's lips when significant figures of the late Baroque period are under consideration. To summarize, he was a contemporary of Antonio Vivaldi and the Veronese-born master of music attached to the court of Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria. As such, Dall'Abaco spent the first 11 years of his tenure in exile with the Elector in the Netherlands, and later, in France.