When the Soviet Union started disintegrating in the late 1980s, music by composers we had seldom, if ever, heard was taken up by Western concert promoters and record labels – Arvo Pärt and Henryk Górecki prominent among them – and our arts culture was thereby enriched.

There seems to be a similar boon with the recent prominence of the gender equality debate – why it is still a ‘debate’ and not a fact remains a moot point – and women composers whose works were often admired by the musical giants of their time are slowly emerging from the gloom of neglect into some well-deserved sunlight.

English violinist Tasmin Little features three women composers on her...