PONS VAROLII is a work by pianist and composer Simão Costa. A dialogue between the piano, the 21st-century orchestra and the SOUND produced by vehicles on the 25 de Abril bridge, premiering at the São Luiz Theatre.
PONS (bridge, from Latin), an architectural archetype. PONS VAROLII is part of the so-called reptilian brain, the oldest and most primitive part of the human brain, focused on survival, basic instincts (hunger, thirst, aggression) and vital functions such as breathing and heartbeat in humans and mammals. PONS VAROLII bridges these functions and the parts of the cerebral cortex.

This work celebrates the freedom we have and that which is yet to come, while also marking the 60th anniversary of a bridge that was once called Salazar and is now called 25 de Abril.
A tribute to freedom and the need to create connections between shores. In a seemingly very polarised world, where we feel marginalised from one another, bridges and freedom are more than a necessity — they are an imperative daily exercise, a gesture of enjoyment of a free society that wants to remain that way.

Without forgetting our instincts and seeking healthy cortical functions, the piano and classical orchestra remain in dialogue as symbols of a Western culture that tends towards rationalism, in symbiosis with the acoustic and visual ecology of the 25 de Abril Bridge — reminding us of the importance of listening and the body as the basis for understanding our earthly reality.

Sound recordings transformed into musical scores, and footage with a film accompanying the concert, with guest director Mário Melo Costa.