Luise Adolpha le Beau belongs among those women composers whom the much-discussed headwinds of the male musical establishment failed to hold back. Born in Rastatt, Baden, as the only child of an army officer with a deep love of music and his equally artistically minded wife, she received an exceptional early education in which the Karlsruhe court conductor Wilhelm Kalliwoda played a particularly important role. Later, in Munich, she became a private pupil of Joseph Rheinberger, and from that point onward her compositional activity expanded steadily, finding expression not only in works of increasing scope and ambition, but also in the growing diversity of her artistic pursuits and the widespread recognition of her achievements.

This selection presents Mademoiselle Le Beau through a fresh, spring-like overture and two substantial orchestral works: the Piano Concerto, whose enchanting slow movement leads to a finale that might well have been inspired by E. T. A. Hoffmann's Little Zaches (Klein Zaches), and the Symphony, whose Scherzo in particular convincingly recalls the cardinal virtues of the early Romantics. A rewarding portrait.