Almost fifty years apart, the careers of Louise Farrenc and Luise Adolpha Le Beau are similar in many respects, starting with their success as composers – they are, respectively, winners of the Prix Chartier and honorary members of the Salzburg Mozarteum. Both Farrenc and Le Beau shine particularly brightly in symphonic writing (three symphonies for the former, a symphony and a piano concerto for the latter), but they are also authors of a fascinating chamber music work, including their quintets for two cellos. Le Beau’s quintet, composed in 1900, is a mature work, and was notably performed in concert at Baden-Baden. Farrenc’s is an adaptation of the Nonette for strings and wind instruments, and one of the composer’s few works still unpublished today. While both were acclaimed by critics who were often misogynistic – one’s talent being described as “virile”, the other’s as “free of the characteristics usually found in women” – they both had to fight for professional equality. Le Beau set up his own piano school, aimed at young girls who wanted to make music their profession, rather than a mere attribute for social brilliance. Farrenc taught at the Paris Conservatoire from 1842, and fought for equal pay. Reunited with Schubert’s, their quintets bear witness to these two brilliant careers. The words of the Revue et Gazette Musicale de Paris, written in 1875 on Farrenc’s death, could just as well have applied to Le Beau: “if the general public is unaware of her name, it is up to the artists, who know what this eminent woman was worth, to pay tribute to her in the most useful way for her memory, i.e., by letting the creations of this distinguished mind be heard from time to time”.