RLPO/Hindoyan: Iberia album review – Hindoyan and the RLPO turn the heat up with Spanish colours and sunshine

(Onyx)
There’s addictive Latin rhythms and perfectly judged musical adrenaline in Domingo Hindoyan and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic’s recording of these six French works with a Spanish theme

There’s a certain reverence for a bygone era about Iberia, the latest album from the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra under chief conductor Domingo Hindoyan. All six works here are familiar fare, the common thread being the late-19th and early 20th-century French enthusiasm for all things Spanish. It’s the kind of programme the record industry thrived on in the 1960s and 70s. There’s nothing dusty about the playing, however, nor the state-of-the-art recording, which possesses sonic depth while leaving plenty of space for the music’s delicate perfumes to waft to the surface.

For all his reserves of Venezuelan fire, Hindoyan takes a measured approach, resisting the temptation to grandstand. The results are frequently revelatory, with much that strikes the ear anew: diaphanous textures, addictive Latin rhythms and perfectly judged releases of musical adrenaline. Listen, for example, to the colours he brings out in Chabrier’s España, the RLPO firing on all cylinders with opulent tone and distinguished solos.