Gerard Jippin

Un guide pour apprendre à manger sur un mode intuitif, en accord avec son corps et ses besoins tant physiques que psychologiques, émotionnels et sociaux. L'auteur présente différents profils de comportement alimentaire, donne des conseils et propose des exercices pratiques pour perdre du poids et rester mince. …

This performance can be labeled Portuguese only loosely, since many of the pieces are sung in Spanish, or taken from Spanish manuscripts, or more properly Galician than Lusitanian. But hey! Who cares? Really artful recordings of any Iberian music of the 'Golden Age' are not sprouting from the cork trees even today. Male alto Gerard Lesne has seldom recorded pre-Baroque chansons, and it's a thrill to hear what he can do with them. Track 9, for instance, the Latin cantiga "Clamabat autem mulier" by Mudarra, takes Lesne from his usual alto register down seamlessly into his tenor chest voice. Wow! Not every counter-tenor can do that and still sound musical!

Robert Schumann graced the cello repertoire not only with one of its most prominent concertos, but also with four sets of satisfying miniatures. Although all but the Op. 102 set on folk tunes was originally conceived for other instruments, it is with the cello that they have found their true home. Brazilian-born cellist Antonio Meneses does a superb job demonstrating to listeners why these works are best suited for his instrument. His sound is quite lean but never tinny. The result is a soaring and clear projection that easily rises above the piano. His interpretation is flexible and insightful, quickly changing gears between the contrasting character pieces. Intonation, articulation, and pacing are all quite refined.

If Prokofiev's Symphony-Concerto for cello and orchestra and Shostakovich's Second Concerto for cello and orchestra had heretofore seemed to be late works shot through with nostalgia and bitterness, that's certainly entirely understandable. Rostropovich, the works' dedicatee who gave both their world premieres, played them that way in his recorded performances and most subsequent cellists have naturally followed his lead.

Among the dozens or perhaps hundreds of available recordings of Pergolesi's Stabat Mater, a subgroup of recent ones has emphasized its very operatic style. Within this group, performers have gone in various directions, but a single one is represented here: sheer vocal beauty of a sort that just doesn't come along every day. The vocal line trumps the dramatic meaning of the text here, but the duets between soprano Véronique Gens and countertenor Gérard Lesne are so gorgeous that you just won't care.

I cannot help feeling that Alessandro Stradella is possibly still one of the major unexplored talents of baroque music. I say this, not because I personally know of piles of forgotten masterpieces by him, but simply because when there is so much of his music that has not been recorded or made available in modern editions, and when what one does get to hear suggests so much talent (the powerful oratorio San Giovanni Battista, for instance), it makes you wonder just what else there might be waiting to be discovered.