Leave your scepticism at the door. This recording of orchestral preludes, interludes and dances from a wide array of verismo operas is a surprise late contender for best album of the year. Conductor Domingo Hindoyan and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra give what could be mere bonbons in lesser hands the royal treatment, presenting these excerpts like operas in miniature.

Give the opening Dance of the Hours, from Ponchielli’s La Gioconda, a whirl. This very familiar piece of music has never sounded quite so fresh, the harp and woodwind attaining a chamber music-like transparency and sense of proportion. The orchestra’s quicksilver responsiveness, the sense that they can bring forth whatever sound or colour or quality asked of them by the score and Hindoyan, is beautifully apparent here and throughout the recording.

The Intermezzo from Puccini’s Manon Lescaut, which tugs at the heartstrings even when played by more workmanlike artists, takes on an existential dimension here. It’s imbued with an astonishing sense...