Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo Essentials

Steeped in Brazilian culture and history, the Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo has delivered worldly, passionate performances since 1954. Early conductors João de Sousa Lima and Eleazar de Carvalho helped develop the ensemble into a group capable of offering equally thrilling readings of Austrian-American Arnold Schoenberg and Brazil's own Cláudio Santoro. In 1997, maestro John Neschling took over artistic direction and put his energy into expanding the organisation—and several choirs, a publishing arm and a music academy flourished. A more recent focus on recording has led the institution to produce a rich anthology of Prokofiev’s symphonies and a few spirited collections of the works of Heitor Villa-Lobos.