Rarities tend to attract each other. For example, among the works composed by women in the nineteenth century – far fewer in number than those of their male colleagues – one often finds pieces for instruments little loved outside the symphony orchestra. This is true for the flute, but also for the clarinet, which found particularly fertile ground for expression in Louise Farrenc, Augusta Holmès, and Rita Strohl. As a substitute for the violin in trios with piano or as an accompanied solo instrument, the flute makes us forget that its usual place is rather in military music and enters the drawing rooms in its own right, distilling there its characteristic sweetness and virtuosity.
