The keyword here, perhaps, is ‘complete’. Beethoven’s ‘Complete Chamber Music with Flute’ is predominantly early, some is of dubious provenance and little or none of it displays the epoch-making individuality of his greatest music. The Sonata was found in the composer’s papers after his death and is either a work from his early Bonn period or a copy of someone else’s; either way, there’s little of interest for the flute, which accompanies a far more active piano part. The two Duos (1792) pass the time attractively enough but don’t linger in the memory. The weightiest music is the rather charming Trio for flute, bassoon and piano (1786) and the Serenade for flute, violin and viola (1801).

The two sets of National Airs with Variations are much later (1818 19) – sequences of folk tunes from the Celtic fringe, Austria, the Tyrol and Russia. These were composed for the Edinburgh publisher George Thomson, for whom Beethoven had already arranged a number of folk songs. Late they may be but the variations have nothing Diabellic about them: you’re left with the feeling that Beethoven’s heart wasn’t in it.

The value of this set is in drawing all this music together in a single compact package with comprehensive annotation, and in these terms it will be of use especially to flute students and teachers. Most of these works, though, are better served elsewhere. It may be invidious to compare artists on a super-budget label with the likes of Emmanuel Pahud and Daniel Barenboim but they and their Berlin colleagues lift the Trio, Serenade and Duos to another plane entirely, with springier phrasing and greater tonal range. So too do Helene Dabringhaus, Vukan Milin and Fil Liotis in the Sonata, Serenade and Trio on a set entitled, appropriately enough, ‘The Young Beethoven’.