Boccherini’s output of quality chamber music is huge, almost all of it elegant and inventively melodic, most of it touched with distinction, yet still greatly undervalued. He described the six Flute Quintets as “quintetti piccoli” but the booklet-note writer Marco Mangani suggests this was the composer’s reference to their cost, as all but one of the six are two-movement works and were subsequently offered for sale in a lower price-range. Yet their diversity of musical style and feeling is not of the kind one would expect from miniatures.

No 1 is indeed lightweight, opening with winning delicacy; but already in No 2 the G minor key brings that element of gentle melancholy which so often lies beneath the surface of Boccherini’s music. This reappears in the Andante first movement of No 3 in C major while the Rondeau grazioso which completes the work skips along with insouciant charm. No 4 opens with a touchingly noble Adagio, yet again has its counterpart in the swinging Minuet which follows. No 5 is upbeat and vivid but Boccherini has a programmatic trick up his sleeve for No 6. Its subtitle “Las parejas” (“The Couples”) refers to a Spanish horse race in which two horsemen ride hand in hand. Here an exhilarating central Galop is framed by an Entrada and dignified Marcia.

These are delightful works played with a persuasively affectionate period-instrument style, with a felicitous lead from the nimble and gently expressive flautist, Carlo Ipata. Hyperion do the players proud in their debut recording; we shall surely hear more of them.