In 1932 Villa-Lobos was made responsible for creating a music education system in Brazil. Choral singing was at the heart of his plan, and – except for the vocal version of Bachianas Brasileiras No 9 (1945) – the a cappella transcriptions presented here were designed specifically for choirs of music teachers, and large choirs at that, as Brazilian musicologist Manoel Corrêa do Lago explains in his helpful booklet note, pointing out how frequently the normal SATB voice parts are further divided. Indeed, while Villa-Lobos never strays far from the originals, he does subtly fill out the textures, particularly in the selections from Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier. Listen, say, to the F sharp minor Prelude from Book 2 side by side with the original score (or a keyboard recording) to hear how artfully he accomplishes this.

These Bach transcriptions require singers with real stamina as well as a sure sense of pitch, and happily, the São Paulo Symphony Choir have both. Not being much of a singer myself, I’m rather envious, as I imagine they allow one to get inside the music in a way that’s quite different from what I experience as a pianist.

Yet, as elevating and inspiring as the Bach transcriptions are, I’m even more taken with the arrangements of popular piano pieces and songs. Somehow, Villa-Lobos makes even an over-roasted chestnut such as Schubert’s ‘Ständchen’ delectably fresh. Is it the translation of the poetry to mellifluous Portuguese? The lovely lilt of the performance? Whatever the reason, I’ve had it on repeat for a week now. I love, too, the strain of Slavic melancholy highlighted in the Chopin Waltz and the silent-movie creepiness of the chromatic slides in Rachmaninov’s C sharp minor Prelude. If only he’d transcribed more than the first 16 bars of the slow movement from Beethoven’s Pathétique Sonata. I can imagine any of these being marvellously effective encore pieces.

The Brazilian choir’s performance of the Bachianas Brasileiras No 9 isn’t as sharply etched as the BBC Singers’ (Lorelt), but it’s quite fine nonetheless. More to the point, it directly connects Bach and the Bachianas, thus providing an apt cap to a rewarding programme.