Louise Farrenc was the kind of person who didn’t hold back. She wanted to achieve something and she found the means to do it. I think it’s just so modern and unapologetic. “This is what I am, I’m a pianist, I’m a composer and I’m going to do everything to apply myself in life.”

Louise FarrencLouise Farrenc

I first encountered her music a couple of years ago when Omega Ensemble Co-Artistic Director David Rowden and I were browsing Spotify, as we often do to get some inspiration for our concerts. Neither of us had heard about her before. We came across this sextet for piano and winds and thought, “Oh, gee, this is fantastic,” having no idea about who the composer was. We just really loved the sound of the music. It was that immediate feeling of the music agreeing with you: the expressiveness, its accessibility – which is a funny word to use by a musician, but I think musicians are just like everyone else, we want to enjoy what we hear.

After having found the Sextet and performed it, for this year’s season we were...