Seeing the words Hindoyan and verismo in close conjunction I’d lazily anticipated a joint recital disc with the conductor’s wife, the soprano Sonya Yoncheva. Instead, this fourth release from Hindoyan and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra is what might once have been called a collection of ‘lollipops’: orchestral interludes, preludes and dance music from the operas of Mascagni, Puccini and their contemporaries.

Well, we’re going to have to think of a term to replace ‘lollipops’. If these really are musical confectionery, they’re the gourmet variety handmade and finished with edible gold leaf. From the first fortissimo of Ponchielli’s Dance of the Hours, these short pieces receive performances on a suitably operatic scale: not so much self-contained miniatures as briefly open windows into a world of unrestrained passion. The string sound is lush and silky, with knowing portamentos: woodwinds and tuned percussion sparkle like gemstones. If I’ve any reservation, it’s that the dynamic range of Onyx’s recording is so wide that I found it difficult to set a consistent volume level.

Against that, there’s an unmistakable flair to these interpretations, with sprung rhythms and sculpted phrasing. You really could dance to this Ponchielli, and the more balletic items – the rarely heard Sinfonia from Mascagni’s Le maschere, Puccini’s La Tregenda or the three delightful morsels of Wolf-Ferrari – have a deliciously old-school elegance and verve. The Act 2 Prelude from Madama Butterfly, meanwhile, has never sounded more Wagnerian. If you can adjust the volume to suit, you might well be tempted to enjoy the whole programme at one sitting: naughty, but nice.