When Heitor Villa-Lobos was commissioned to contribute a composition to the 400th anniversary of São Paulo in 1954, he was not disappointed: his 10th symphony “Ameríndia” is a huge work. Oratory? Choral symphony? Or is it simply a symphony? It’s hard to say: she wants to be Ode to Brazil and at the same time conjures up a historical unity that the country actually does not have. Villa-Lobos succeeds in no less feat in arranging the set-to-music texts than in forcing indigenous myth and the Christianity of the colonialists into a familiar get-together: the Jesuit priest José de Anchieta, who is one of the founding fathers of São Paulo, becomes Sumé, the “father of the fathers”, that God-like figure with white skin, who according to Indian mythology once came across the sea and the inhabitants cultivated crops and the The use of fire was taught. Villa-Lobos comes up with a music that subtly infuses South American color, streaks mystical sounds, while being easily comprehensible, but never cheap. Of course, the comparison with Beethoven or Mahler lags behind, the symphony always remains “Brazilian”, does not become universal – and it is precisely in this that it unfolds its enchanting peculiarity. The São Paulo Symphony Orchestra and Choir under Isaac Karabtchevsky play this work with clarity and temperament, thus delivering a listening experience that is not just “exotic”, but actually opens up wonderfully strange worlds of sound and thought.