Any true Villa-Lobos fan will have to have the 1958 EMI recording of this work, conducted by the composer and featuring the Brazilian singer Bidu Sayão, and there are a number of other versions, whose availability is variable. Heller’s Moscow recording with Renée Fleming was something of a sonic revelation; Svetlanov’s recording, featuring Natalia Gerasimova, I have not heard.

This new release features even better – SACD – sound, and a dramatic, immaculately prepared performance under John Neschling, who did so much to raise the São Paulo orchestra’s profile. The music’s origins lie in a film score written by the composer in 1958 for the film Green Mansions. Villa-Lobos had no idea what writing for a film entailed and arrived with a full symphonic score, of which only fragments were used, in new orchestrations by Bronislaw Kaper. This work, of nearly 80 minutes, is what was left! The music is, of course, wilful, fluid and entirely unpredictable, with moments of extreme violence and tremendous beauty – I rather think that if a gem such as “Em plena floresta” were more widely known, it would feature on many an orchestra’s programme as an encore. The orchestration is variegated, by turns dense and transparent, lush and spare. Hungarian soprano Anna Korondi is excellent and her Portuguese perfectly acceptable: though Sayão is in a class of her own, the balance between voice and orchestra on the old recording is far from ideal. This is a different matter entirely. Very warmly recommended.