What else can you put into music apart from life? Life is made up of love in different shapes and forms, of family and friends, of travelling experiences, of memories, of art and poetry. It’s certainly enough. Anyone who tries to explain the continued success of Rodrigo Leão’s music – and they don’t have to – can start there: people listen to his records, applaud his concerts and build long-lasting relationships with his compositions because they find all of that in them – echoes of a full and complete life that enchants and grabs those who listen carefully. 

Piano para piano, Rodrigo Leão’s new album, is perhaps the one with the most life in it. Firstly because it marks a happy meeting between the renowned composer and his daughter Rosa. Rodrigo himself explains simply and transparently how this album came about: “Rosa didn’t have the courage to refuse my request because she’s the most diplomatic person I know. And I was lucky because she’s very patient with me, she has an extraordinary sensitivity and it shows in the way she plays. It’s been a new and marvellous experience getting to know her in this context, working together,” explains the composer. 

Always acutely aware of his abilities, Rodrigo is always keen to stress that he is not a pianist in the classical sense of the term, but on this disc he has written melodies that could be praised by someone with a more solid pianism. He first tried to challenge his eldest son, António, who was prevented from taking part in the project due to pressing academic demands. But Rosa, his middle daughter, responded to the idea of taking part in a record that proposed dialogues based on two pianos. Dialogues that were then adorned with arrangements, in one case even for a string trio, a task that was left to his enthusiastic youngest daughter, Sofia. As you can see, Rodrigo’s children are all involved in advanced musical studies. 

“I started by making some simple bases for them to play and then I composed slightly more difficult melodies for them to play along with me; at first it seemed strange, but then the pieces started to come together and everything started to make sense and flow naturally,” the composer explains. “That’s how the first themes of Piano Para Piano were born. I started working on these new themes in October 2022 and although almost all of them were designed for two pianos, I ended up including string sounds, loops and a more electronic side in some of them. It turned out to be an album where I found new inspirations and influences thanks to the constant interaction with this marvellous new generation of my children.” A disc full of life, indeed. 

Rodrigo Leão also reveals the material from which his compositions are made: In Piano for Piano there are pieces dedicated to real people – such as “Rodant”, a bow from father Rodrigo to son António; “Neo”, which refers to the affectionate nickname given to his father-in-law; “Gabi”, for his sister-in-law Gabriela and his long-time musical companion, Gabriel Gomes; “Marzar”, a tribute to a family from Goa; or, for example, “Pandu”, the name of a taxi driver and friend he also met in Goa, the land of his wife and mother of his children. And there are other places that inspire compositions, such as his beloved Ericeira, which he discovers in “Jagoz”. 

In fact, in each of the songs there are people inside and stories, friendships that go back decades and others that are closer – all these lines intersect in an album in which Rodrigo and Rosa Leão engage in a tender dialogue, in an intimate record that reflects the closeness and complicity that only a father and daughter can share. Rodrigo Leão’s life could be made into a film, like so many others, but fortunately it has inspired many albums. And perhaps none more so than this one. Piano para Piano is a father’s story told to a daughter without having to say a single word. Because pianos understand each other well. That’s life.