These are very polished and assured performances of Boccherini’s quintettinos for flute and strings; yet they do not quite capture the essence of the music. Perhaps it is all a little too serious, too refined, too suave. And sometimes too slow: the amoroso minuets, for example, in Nos. 1 and 2, are very weighty and deliberate – amoroso may (and no doubt in some circumstances does) imply ‘slowly’, but Boccherini’s direction is more concerned here with mood than tempo. Three of these two-movement pieces have minuets, and three of them rondos, all of which are written with a light touch that the players here don’t quite achieve. Those of the last two especially are full of Boccherini’s particular kind of almost mischievous wit, and in No. 6 the playing is quite direct and hearty (and the occasional tampering with the tempo seems very much overdone).
As for the first movements, there is some very shapely playing, for example in No. 4, though the heavy textures lead to a dull effect, and the wistful air of No. 3 is nicely caught. There is plenty of graceful flute playing, notably in the first and the last of the set. No. 5 emerges as slightly banal in this rather vigorous reading. Nearly always the result seems to me rhythmically rather static. Some of the trouble, though not all, lies in the use of modern instruments and techniques, which lead to a richer sound than the music really wants. You certainly won’t often hear Boccherini performed with greater skill or tonal beauty, and there is no lack of affection for the music; but something of its spirit eludes these accomplished players.'