Eight cellists of the Sinfonieorchester Basel create South American flair with works by Astor Piazzolla and Heitor Villa-Lobos. Piazzolla delved into the history of Argentine tango, tracing its roots in the dive bars of Buenos Aires, and managed to give this rich musical heritage entirely new colors with enrichments of European music. His popular Four Seasons (Las Cuatro estaciones porteñas) is an impressive example of this.

A generation earlier, Heitor Villa-Lobos found secret lines of connection between Johann Sebastian Bach and the music of Brazil and turned them into a tropically dazzling musical panorama. The first of the Bachianas Brasileiras is an original work for cellos dedicated to the exceptional cellist Pablo Casals.