Despite its unarguable quality, British flute music is still relatively unknown. When many of the works on this enticingly programmed and brilliantly performed album were written, the flute scene was dominated by French composers whose melodic and harmonic styles perfectly matched the silvery tone of the modern flute. Flute music from other countries barely got a look-in. Adam Walker and pianist Huw Watkins go some way here to correcting this imbalance with works by Vaughan Williams, Bax, Bowen, Ferguson, Berkeley, and Alwyn. “This is music,” he tells Apple Music Classical, “that deserves to be heard a lot more.” Each piece possesses its own unique quality, but all share a natural affinity with the flute itself with writing that explores the instrument’s full potential. Lennox Berkeley’s Sonatina is full of floating melodies, with a playfulness that looks forward to Poulenc’s great Flute Sonata, composed almost 20 years later. Alwyn’s Sonata, meanwhile, explores the angular melodies and swirling textures that characterizes so much of Prokofiev’s music. But it’s the Sonata by York Bowen that, for Walker, is the highlight. “It’s up there with the best flute sonatas,” he says. “It’s a truly fabulous piece. And there is a cheeky reference to Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune to listen out for in the first movement.” Walker’s technical virtuosity and rich, burnished flute tone brings the Sonata’s fervent romanticism out into the open, matched by Watkins’ impeccably judged pianism.