[El sombrero de tres picos] The performance quickly settles down into one of the most witty, colorful, and absorbing sensual of the work’s recent outings.

What’s really unmistakable here is the enthusiasm with which Heras-Casado conducts [El Sombrero], and the sheer exhilaration of the response he elicits from the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. He gives us a high-voltage interpretation, rich in detail, and strong on dramatic and narrative momentum. Rhythms are wonderfully precise, textures very sensuous throughout, the latter helped immeasurably by the vivid, immediate recording.

Falla’s two ballets swagger, stomp and sizzle in these vivid, sun-scorched accounts from the Spanish conductor and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra – the rasping horns and almost jazzy cor anglais at the opening of the Miller’s Dance are a delight, and after enjoying Carmen Romeu’s clean soprano in El sombrero de tres picos the earthy roughness of flamenco diva Marina Heredia Rios in El Amor Brujo offers a delicious gear-change.

Both scores are Falla at his inspired best, rhythmically flamboyant and with an audacity learnt from Debussy and Ravel. Heras-Casado captures the unique Iberian flavour of music that owes much to its flamenco roots.