With more than 100 Boccherini cello quintets to choose from‚ the problem for anyone wanting to make recordings is which to choose. The E major G275 (formerly Op 13 No 5) makes an obvious first choice‚ when the third movement is the music universally associated with the very name of Boccherini‚ his Minuet. It is particularly refreshing in the Vanbrugh performance to hear it set in context against the work’s other three movements‚ with their approach‚ light and crisp‚ paying obvious tribute to period practice in the choice of tempo – far faster than one usually associates with ‘Boccherini’s Minuet’. The other movements are comparably striking‚ starting with a leisurely first movement marked amoroso‚ easily lyrical‚ before Boccherini interrupts the mood with a dialogue between the two cellos climbing higher and higher. The following Allegro‚ briskly performed‚ is the sort of movement one would have expected to start the work‚ developing the idea of brilliant dialogue between the instruments. The finale is a relaxed Rondo‚ marked sotto voce‚ again with much pointed dialogue between the instruments. The format of a string quintet with two cellos instead of two violas was very much Boccherini’s special genre. Himself a cellist‚ it allowed him to free at least one of the cellos from following the bass line‚ so as to soar lyrically. One regularly registers that point in the other two quintets too‚ neither currently listed in the catalogue. That neglect is surprising‚ when Boccherini himself picked them out as favourites in a letter he wrote to the composer and piano­maker‚ Ignaz Pleyel. Both composed in 1789‚ 18 years after the E major‚ they regularly rely on a characteristic Boccherini device of quickly switching between major and minor keys. So the striking minor­key openings of both works promptly lead to the relative major keys‚ with interplay of tonality back and forth. The Adagio third movement then brings a striking moment when the lyrical ideas are suddenly interrupted in a Beethoven­like gesture‚ with repeated discords hammered out. The jaunty main theme of the Rondo finale then gives scope for much brilliant passage­work. In the G minor Quintet‚ Boccherini again uses the rare marking amoroso in the Larghetto slow movement‚ before leading in the finale to a movement that has something of the flavour of Haydn in Sturm und Drang mood‚ not a Rondo this time but a compact sonata­form structure. To have this fascinating music vividly recorded in such fine performances‚ both polished and refreshing‚ with Richard Lester a perfect partner for the prize­winning Vanbrugh Quartet‚ makes for an ideal sampler disc‚ even if one hesitates to recommend to anyone just yet the idea of recording all 100­odd quintets.