Sharon Bezaly’s delightful sequence of French flute works opens with a charming miniature Sonatine by Pierre Sancan, responding to a commission for a piece to test candidates for a flute competition; the result is a delight, not just a technical exercise. The Widor also comes as a surprise, light and sparkling with its four movements beautifully balanced and contrasted, ending with a dashing, ever more daring finale. The two items by Roussel are nicely contrasted. Each movement of Joueurs de flute was inspired by a mythical or fictional flautist, with an evocative portrait of Pan bringing oriental echoes to represent Krishna. The Roussel Poemes feature soprano Barbara Hendricks, the flute alone accompanying the voice, while the Sonatine by Darius Milhaud is typically light and frothy. Benjamin Godard’s suite extends his reputation as a composer of salon music, ending with a dashing, witty waltz.

Several of the items are on a new Avie disc by the American Jeffrey Khaner (11/07), but his vibrato is much more marked than Bezaly’s and her performances of the Widor and Godard are to be preferred.