The 150th anniversary of the birth of Manuel de Falla has seen a plethora of recordings, albeit mostly of the same handful of works. And therein lies the problem. Apart from Love the Magician (El Amor Brujo), The Three-Cornered Hat (El Sombrero de Tres Picos) and Nights in the Gardens of Spain, there’s little of his music in the repertoire, with the Harpsichord Concerto, the fine one-act opera La Vida Breve and Master Peter’s Puppet Show lurking on the fringes. Nevertheless, what remains is first-rate music and here Domingo Hindoyan has distilled Falla’s modest output into 80 minutes of undiluted pleasure.

As they proved on Iberia, their recent album of Spanish-inspired French music (ONYX ONYX4252), Hindoyan and his Liverpool forces have a knack for colour, balance and pace that makes this kind of music dance along (particularly appropriate for Falla’s two ballet scores). There’s an element of swings and roundabouts here. The Suite from The Three-Cornered Hat is a fine way to keep up the fizz and Hindoyan is spot on in his lively interpretation. Dispensing with the vocal soloist in El Amor Brujo is perhaps less ideal, though the remaining music is full of interest, and set pieces like The Ritual Fire Dance crackle with energy. Both ballet scores are aided by the Onyx recording which has both great naturalness and exceptional depth – compare The Three Cornered Hat’s strutting Fandango with the delicacy of The Grapes.

Of more interest to the collector will be the rarely recorded Homenajes – a late (1938) suite of pieces written as tributes to teachers, friends and heroes from Falla’s past – and Fantasía Bética, a substantial piano solo composed for Rubinstein and heard here in Francisco Coll’s bravura 2023 orchestration. The Homenajes are especially rich, spikier than the composer’s earlier works, with a habanera for Debussy and a touching elegy for Dukas. The impassioned Interlude and airy Dance from La Vida Breve are welcome makeweights.

Listen on Apple Music

Composer: Falla
Works: El Sombrero de Tres Picos, El Amor Brujo et al.
Performers: Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra/Domingo Hindoyan
Label: ONYX ONYX4277