A new CD label dedicated to forgotten and neglected female composers is launched with three discs featuring the music of Rita Strohl. Born in Brittany in 1865, Strohl attended classes at the Paris Conservatoire, though apparently she studied composition privately; her first works, a string quartet and a “fantaisie” quintet, were published in the mid-1880s. Through the years of her first marriage she continued to compose chamber music in a rather conservative idiom influenced by César Franck and Wagner, and admired by Saint-Saëns, Fauré and D’Indy. But it was only after the death of her husband in 1900 that she turned to orchestral music, with a series of pieces, including two symphonies, in which the palettes of composers such as Debussy and Dukas became much more important.

The Boîte à Pépites disc of Strohl’s orchestral music (the other volumes are devoted to her chamber music and songs) concentrates on her works from around the turn of the century, in more-than-serviceable performances by the Orchestre National d’Île-de-France, conducted by Case Scaglione. Together with some orchestral songs of the late 1890s, it’s dominated by the Symphonie de la Forêt of 1901, an impressive four-movement work, strikingly scored – which is more than enough to confirm that Strohl’s music deserves wider exposure; there’s a distinctly original voice here that needs to be heard.

Listen on Apple Music (above) or on Spotify