Recondita Armonia (Pirouet)
Pablo Held Trio
Released August 28, 2015
DownBeat Four-and-a-Half-Star Review
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_l-6pDJig7WfpvEi_-3thbd-RTbt8jbQaE
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/album/7CWj4FG2Ms9hnuQJeKnfxi?si=2-ekf8fDRXGtMcbefX1auA
About:
Pablo Held Trio’s album Recondita Armonia takes a bow to such legendary composers as Mompou, Stravinsky, Scriabin and Rachmaninoff. Atmospheric, self-contained, the trio practices the high art of absorbing and transmuting these classical compositions into their own special creative amalgam.
Track Listing:
1. Offertoire from L’Orgue Mystique Op. 57, Cycle Après La Pentecôte No.33 (Charles Tournemire) 05:52
2. Fragments (Sergey Rachmaninov) 05:29
3. Prélude No.3 from 12 Préludes (Federico Mompou) 05:23
4. Feuillet D’album Op.58 (Alexander Scriabin) 05:30
5. Mountain Horn Song from Romanian Folk Songs (Béla Bartók) 04:55
6. Agnus Dei from Mass (Igor Stravinsky) 05:05
7. Interludium No.5 from Ludus Tonalis (Paul Hindemith) 05:39
8. Recondita Armonia from Tosca (Giacomo Puccini) 06:47
Personnel:
Pablo Held: piano
Robert Landfermann: bass
Jonas Burgwinkel: drums
Recorded June 5 – 6, 2014 & April 2, 2015, at Kyberg Studio, Oberhaching, Germany
Produced, Recorded and Mixed by Jason Seizer
Mastered by Christoph Stickel
Cover Design & Artwork by Konstantin Kern
Review:
German pianist Pablo Held, though only 28, has excelled extensively on record. Alongside three fine releases with his trio and a gorgeous large-ensemble album, Glow, his catalog includes last year’s left-field meeting between his trio and guitarist John Scofield. Several of these discs include a takeoff on a classical piece. With Recondita Armonia—the title, from an aria in Puccini’s Tosca, translates evocatively as “Hidden Harmonies”—Held puts an individual spin on the typical ballad album by drawing on all classical themes. The selections are hip, the explorations ingenious. Held, bassist Robert Landfermann and drummer Jonas Burgwinkel open by reimagining a piece from L’Orgue Mystique by 20th-century French organist Charles Tournemire, who was a celebrated improviser. Oddly enough, the beguiling melody sounds like that of a jazz standard; the trio improvises over a pedal point in the spaces Tournemire left for plainsong and chants, with Landfermann’s dusky tone a sensual draw. The magical atmospherics of Catalan miniaturist Federico Mompou—whose music Held learned by heart growing up, thanks to his pianist father—feel newly minted, given Burgenwinkel’s rhythmic textures and Held’s tartly improvised lines. The trio transforms Scriabin’s mysterious piano piece “Feuillet D’Album” into a richly voiced tone poem, bringing out a world of hidden resonance. “Mountain Horn Song,” from Bartók’s suite Romanian Folk Dances, is bewitchingly done, the strong melody providing lyrical grist for Held. Along with the Puccini title tune, the group digs deep into pieces by Rachmaninoff, Stravinsky and Hindemith; but no matter how distinctive the frame, the trio is the picture, always sounding like its ruminative, glowing self.
Bradley Bambarger (DownBeat)
