Some time in the late '50s as Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos neared the end of his life he was commissioned to compose the orchestral soundtrack to the movie
Green Mansions, the soundtrack to which was later released on LP as
Forest of the Amazon. The movie was not a success and at this point it hardly matters for the music is something we can appreciate fully with or without the film. I found the full soundtrack many years ago in a used record store and have appreciated it ever since. The composer conducting the full LP version remains fixed in my mind as the version I most seek to hear, but there is the Suite version we can hear on the new CD
Amazonia (Alpha-Classics CD) coupled with Phillip Glass's
Metamorphosis 1 from his
Aguas de Amazonia, all by Simone Menezes conducting Philharmonia Zurich with soprano Camilio Provenzale on several of the Villa-Lobos movements.
This is Villa-Lobos-ian Brazilian Impressionist tone painting of the highest order, extraordinarily well orchestrated. and evocative of the lushly exotic Amazonian canopy as only perhaps Villa-Lobos understood it. I still think the old United Artist LP of the complete soundtrack is a killer but this version of the suite is quite nice and representative.
And then you get to hear the related Glass work, some ten minutes of Minimalist slanted Amazonian expression, so that is a definite plus.
Take a look at a brief video for a taste of the music https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smjXGM3OWKI&t=4s
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