Hands up: I was dimly aware that Donizetti had written string quartets, but rather like Berlioz (with his insistence that Italians couldn’t write symphonies) I’d lazily assumed that they were apprentice works or squibs. But no, according to the Allitt Catalogue he wrote some 20 quartets between 1817 and 1836 and from the three collected here it’s clear that we’ve been missing out. They’re inventive, beautifully crafted delights – very much in the Quatuor brillant tradition of Cherubini and Spohr, with a lyricism and verve reminiscent of the young Mendelssohn. The huge moto perpetuo tarantella that forms the opening movement of No 18 has a scale and momentum that put me in mind of Schubert (music that Donizetti is unlikely to have known).

Elsewhere, there’s both lyricism and virtuosity aplenty. Donizetti’s material can be as quirky as the strutting polonaise that closes No 18 or as expressive as the same quartet’s hymnlike, almost Haydn-ish slow movement, but it’s always keenly characterised, and the harmonic path it takes is often far from predictable. The Quartetto Delfico go at it con amore; they describe themselves as ‘historically informed’ and they play with a light touch and an agreeably slimline tone, without shying away either from Donizetti’s boisterous tuttis or his more flamboyant bel canto flights. Leader Mauro Massa glides over all that stratospheric coloratura like watered silk, and while the Delfico have a graceful way of letting phrases breathe, they can be incisive too: witness the three Menuettos, where Donizetti comes closest to the rhythmic kick of a Beethoven. This music won’t rock the world, but in performances like these it certainly rewards repeated listening.