Performer: São Paulo Symphony Orchestra

In true Olympian spirit, Marin Alsop and her São Paulo Symphony Orchestra dived head first into the drama of Brazilian music, with luxurious Rachmaninov and Gabriela Montero freely expressive in Grieg.

Marin Alsop nods to her mentor in Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, challenges the Edinburgh Festival Chorus with Villa-Lobos' Chôros 10 and astonishes in a passionate enduring performance of Shostakovich's Fifth.

Celso Antunes and Bertrand Chamayou present the evocative music of Debussy, Scriabin and Takemitsu with the São Paulo State Orchestra.

In a program conceived by composer and conductor John Adams, Sibelius’ Lemminkäinen Suite, Adams’ own Absolute Jest and Beethoven’s Symphony no. 7 sounded in sympathetic resonance with Charles Ives’ Three Places in New England.

Jaime Martín conducts Antoine Tamestit and the OSESP in a night of literary inspired music by Berlioz, Turina and De Falla. 

Directed by guest conductor Tito Muñoz, the São Paulo State Orchestra (OSESP) performed a programme centered around the different conceptions of contrast, with music by Takemitsu, Beethoven and Nielsen.