In this interview, musical director Simone Menezes and Lélia Salgado – who oversees Sebastião Salgado’s artistic legacy and the Instituto Terra (winner of the 2023 Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity) – talk to us about this fascinating project.

In this production, Sebastião Salgado’s photographs are not merely a backdrop; they are part of a narrative. How did the creative process behind Amazônia unfold?

Simone Menezes (SM) – Both Villa-Lobos and Sebastião Salgado knew the Amazon rainforest intimately. Villa-Lobos was fascinated by the sounds of nature and by indigenous song; Sebastião developed a unique eye for the forms of the forest and for the men and women who live there.

The work is built around large musical tableaux, such as A Floresta (The Forest), Dentro da Floresta (Within the Forest) and Dança Guerreira (War Dance). Starting from these movements, we began an artistic dialogue to create a visual narrative to accompany the music.

The first step was creating the suite. Working from the original score, which runs to around an hour and ten minutes, I selected the principal movements in collaboration with the Brazilian Academy of Music. Sebastião then listened to the work countless times before choosing, from among his photographs, those that best matched the universe of each movement. The result is a true encounter between the music of Villa-Lobos and the eye of Sebastião Salgado.

The Amazon appears here through three distinct artistic universes: Villa-Lobos, Philip Glass and the photographic eye of Sebastião Salgado. What draws these creators together, and what idea of the Amazon emerges from this encounter?

SM – What unites these three artists is a feeling of profound admiration for the Amazon. None of them presents it as an idealised paradise. Rather, they show it as a place of such grandeur that it leaves us almost lost for words.

They are artists of very different generations and languages, yet they arrived at the same experience of wonder before the force of nature. At the same time, through the faces and gazes of the people who inhabit the forest, we come to recognise something of ourselves.

The Amazon that emerges from this encounter is therefore more than a place. It is an experience of wonder, humility and reconnection with something greater than ourselves.

The suite Floresta do Amazonas was originally conceived by Villa-Lobos for the cinema and takes on another dimension here. What did you discover in the work as you prepared it for the concert hall, and how do you intend to guide the Gulbenkian Orchestra in conveying the sensory experience of Amazônia?

SM – Villa-Lobos originally composed this music for a film, but he quickly realised that it had a symphonic force of its own. He went on to transform it into a free-standing symphonic poem, and I believe it stands among the great works of his maturity.

In studying it, I found three striking elements: an extraordinary rhythmic drive, orchestral writing of tremendous breadth, and a profoundly human lyricism. Villa-Lobos’s emotional universe is highly distinctive, marked by a nostalgia and an expressiveness all his own.

With the Gulbenkian Orchestra, my intention is to work precisely on that balance between force, space and emotion, allowing the music to carry the audience into the heart of this sonic and human landscape.

This production is also a gesture of awareness-raising for environmental preservation. Do you believe it can have a concrete impact on how audiences relate to nature and its preservation?

SM – I believe art works differently from politics or education. Its role is not to persuade, but to create an experience that touches us directly.

That is the power of Amazônia. The project brings together extraordinary music and the extraordinary photographs of Sebastião Salgado, without resorting to effects or artifice. The focus is on the force of these two artistic languages.

When we are touched by an experience like this, we come to see nature, and the people who live within it, in a closer and more human way. If there is a message, perhaps it is simply this: to remind us that we are part of this great garden, and that we have a responsibility to care for it.

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The Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity recognised the work of the Instituto Terra in environmental regeneration and in raising awareness of the climate emergency. In what way do you feel Amazônia carries that same mission forward – in this case through Sebastião Salgado’s photographs combined with the music of Heitor Villa-Lobos and Philip Glass?

Lélia Salgado (LS) – The concert Amazônia – which brings together, in a singular interplay, Heitor Villa-Lobos’s music inspired by the Amazon rainforest and the photographs Sebastião Salgado made in the region over expeditions spanning almost seven years – is a call to protect this unique biodiversity, indispensable to the survival of humanity and the planet, and to protect the indigenous peoples who live there. In conceiving this concert, alongside the exhibition, our aim was to use an unusual visual and musical experience to awaken audiences of every generation – as well as politicians, public authorities and institutions at large – to the importance of environmental preservation and regeneration, to the climate emergency, and to the safeguarding of native communities.

Both Amazônia and the Instituto Terra seem to share the same idea of hope: that what is under threat can be protected, and even regenerated. Would you say this is one of the central messages uniting the two projects?

LS – Without any doubt. At the Instituto Terra, we have shown that it is possible to replant a forest. From arid, degraded land, the biodiversity of the Atlantic Forest was reborn. The flora and fauna that once lived there have returned. We must keep that same focus on the Amazon. It is possible – and essential – to regenerate what has already been deforested there, and to protect what remains intact, before it is lost.

Between the awareness that Amazônia inspires and the Instituto Terra’s concrete work on the ground, what future would you like to help build for the generations to come?

LS – We must do everything in our power to make future generations aware of the need to preserve our planet’s forests and biodiversity. Without them, we will not survive. Initiatives like the Instituto Terra show people around the world that, in practice, it works. It is possible. We need to multiply such initiatives everywhere. Planting trees, and preserving those that already exist, has an immeasurable effect. It has the potential to improve people’s lives, drive social change and save the planet. The concert Amazônia works towards the same goal, but in a different sphere – that of awareness – which is no less important. I believe any action in this direction is welcome. And essential. We must act.