Born in Paris in 1804 as Jeanne-Louise Dumont, Louise Farrenc was the daughter of Jacques-Edme Dumont and the sister of Auguste Dumont, both Prix de Rome-winning sculptors. Louise was musically inclined, and when she was six, she started studying piano and music theory with Cecile Soria, a former pupil of pianist and composer Muzio Clementi. It quickly became apparent that she had potential as a professional pianist, and she took additional lessons with piano masters Ignaz Moscheles and Johann Nepomuk Hummel. In 1819, Louise Farrenc broke a significant gender barrier when she began studying composition with Anton Reicha at the Paris Conservatoire (it is not clear if she audited his classes or was officially accepted, as the course was only open to men). In 1821, she married Aristide Farrenc, a flute student ten years her senior. The pair began giving concerts around France, but the duo opened a publishing house in Paris when Aristide grew tired of touring. For almost 40 years, Éditions Farrenc was one of France’s leading music publishers.

During the 1830s, Louise Farrenc became increasingly well known as a pianist, and during this period also began writing chamber and orchestral music. In 1834, she composed two overtures—single-movement works that usually precede an opera. Although Farrenc’s overtures were stand-alone works, they have a drama all their own. First performed in Paris in 1835, the Overture No. 2 in E-flat Major begins on a mysterious note that conjures up the anticipation of sitting in a darkened auditorium. This brief introduction gives way to two well-profiled themes, an energetic, agitated melody for strings and a lyrical, gentler theme for woodwinds.

As the reception of Farrenc’s music illustrates, she had to deal with blatant sexism throughout her career. Hector Berlioz, whose Symphonie fantastique had made a big splash in Paris just a few years earlier, called her overtures “Well written and orchestrated with a talent rare among women.” One of her biggest fans, the conductor François-Joseph Fétis, gave her the ultimate compliment: “With Mme. Farrenc. the inspiration and the art of composing are of masculine proportions.” Farrenc was not content to live with this inequality. When she was appointed to the position of Professor of Piano at the Paris Conservatoire but paid less than her male colleagues, she fought back, voicing her disapproval. After the success of her Nonet in 1849, a work championed by the famous violinist Joseph Joachim, she finally won. Over the decades that ensued, her music was largely forgotten. The 21st century has brought renewed interest in her works, however. As conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin told the New York Times in October 2021, “[Her] symphonies and the overtures should hold a similar place as Schumann and Mendelssohn. I believe she is completely deserving of that.”