This release by soprano Cyrielle Ndjiki appears on the Mirare label's new Futur imprint, featuring up-and-coming artists. Ndjiki, also known as Cyrielle Ndjiki Nya, is a native of Creil in northern France and a recent Conservatoire de Paris graduate. Perhaps the imprint is intended to make room for developing talents, and Ndjiki is certainly one. Her middle register is indistinct, and she has ground to cover as an interpreter; the Wesendonck Lieder of Wagner and Ravel's Chansons madécasses might as well have similar ...
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This release by soprano Cyrielle Ndjiki appears on the Mirare label's new Futur imprint, featuring up-and-coming artists. Ndjiki, also known as Cyrielle Ndjiki Nya, is a native of Creil in northern France and a recent Conservatoire de Paris graduate. Perhaps the imprint is intended to make room for developing talents, and Ndjiki is certainly one. Her middle register is indistinct, and she has ground to cover as an interpreter; the Wesendonck Lieder of Wagner and Ravel's Chansons madécasses might as well have similar topics in her readings. However, one part of a future star's makeup is already in place: Ndjiki's top register has power and a startling edge. Consider Aoua, from the Chansons madécasses, with its small chamber ensemble accompaniment. The angry opening cries of this song ("Beware of white people!") have rarely had such penetrating intensity. That cycle forms the centerpiece of the album, and in general, Ndjiki gets its Schoenbergian, expressionist quality. The program is only lightly...
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