Bach provides the inspiration, Brazil provides the sunshine and massed cellos provide the colour.

In this concert, cellist Jian Wang will be joined by the cello section of the Sydney Symphony for a program that takes Villa-Lobos' exotic melting pot of styles as its starting point.

"Mestizo" they call it - a meeting of European and native traditions - and this is what's going on in the Bachianas Brasileiras when Villa-Lobos spins Brazilian melodies in baroque textures. The most famous and poetic of these is No.5: eight cellos joined by a "lovely songbird" in a moonlit sky.

The warmth and richness of the cello sound continues in music by Bach himself, original and with a difference.