LPO Plays Four Compositions by Tania León

Cover of the album being discussed (courtesy of PIAS)

This Friday will see the latest release of an album produced by the London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO). It presents four compositions by the Cuban-born American composer Tania León, three of which are world premiere recordings. Two of them are conducted by Edward Gardner: “Raíces” (origins) and “Pasajes.” The other world premiere is of “Stride,” conducted by Dima Slobodeniouk. These are all preceded by “Horizons” conducted by Karina Canellakis. (From a “local point of view,” both Canellakis and Gardner will be returning to the podium of the San Francisco Symphony in the coming season, the first in early November and the second in mid-January.)

I have a vague memory that, when I moved to Connecticut in the fall of 1981, I had tried to touch base with León through what amounted to a classical music dating service. Nothing came of that effort, and my encounters with her music have been relatively sparse. Nevertheless, I wrote about her “Elegia a Paul Robeson” when it was performed by Ensemble for These Times in January of 2024 and “Pasajes” through a Live from Orchestra Hall Webcast of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in December of 2022.

The release of this new album has provided me with my first opportunity to give León the seriously attentive listening she deserves. The overall dynamic range is a wide one, which may require many listeners to “ride” the volume control as the intensity rises and diminishes. It would probably be fair to say that instrumentation is the tip of León’s spear. The problem is that even the best of recording technologies tend to blunt that spear. From the point of view of information theory, recording technology does not accommodate the “bit rate” that is experienced when one listens to all those instruments in a concert hall.

Nevertheless, I am glad that I have added this album to my “physical resources.” However, I am not sure how many will share my motivation. What is most important is that my interest in León has reawakened, invoking a desire to make sure that I shall be there to listen the next time a performance of her music takes place here in San Francisco. The tracks on this album should serve well to prepare me for that next experience, particularly the most recent of them, “Raíces,” which was composed only this past year.