The enterprising Virginia-based cellist Juliana Soltis has unearthed little-known cello works by six American female composers. Of the six, the earliest is Amy Beach (1867-1944) and the latest is Dorothy Rudd Moore (1940-2022). Moore’s Dirge and Deliverance (1971) offers an impassioned statement and emerges as the most arresting piece on the disc. It also proves to be the longest, most ambitious and most recent. The two players address it with fervour from the initial tolling bass octaves in the piano. Soltis confidently handles the extended solo cadenza (from 9'36"), with spiccato effects and harmonics.

I like the way Mary Howe’s Ballade fantasque unexpectedly springs to life in its final section with jazzy flair from both instruments. Margaret Bonds’s Troubled Waters speaks in an identifiably African American idiom, laced with the traditions of Spirituals, jazz, gospel and blues, and the duo play it with admirable cohesion.

Pianist Ruoting Li partners Soltis with fluent sensitivity and assurance. In an accompanying YouTube video, Soltis salutes the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, where she discovered the scores.