Heitor Villa-Lobos is generally acknowledged as Latin America’s foremost nationalist composer and his best known works, such as the Bachianas Brasileiras, have tended to overshadow the rest of his work. Symphony No.6, which launched his mature symphonic style, derives some of its themes from the contours of Brazilian hills and mountains, in a process devised by the composer to obtain a melody from an image by means of a graphic chart.

The Symphony No.7 is scored for a huge orchestra and is one of the composer’s most ambitious and significant statements. Both works represent the composer’s powerful desire to invent a specifically Brazilian idiom. This is the first volume of a complete cycle of the Villa-Lobos Symphonies.

Since its first concert in 1954, the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra – OSESP – has paved a road of conquest, which has culminated today in being an institution recognized worldwide for its excellence. Having released more than 50 CDs, OSESP has become an inseparable part of São Paulo and Brazilian culture, promoting deep cultural and social transformations.

Born in Brazil in 1934, Isaac Karabtchevsky studied conducting and composition in Germany under Wolfgang Fortner, Pierre Boulez and Carl Ueter. Between 1995 and 2001 he was musical director of the La Fenice in Venice, where he directed major opera productions. Since 2004 he has been artistic director of the Petrobras Symphony of Rio de Janeiro.