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Zuzana Růžičková

The rising tide of modern harpsichordists has caused us to forget somewhat the previous generation, that of the pioneers, in a time when the instrument that had been the king of the Ancien Regime was beginning to return to the stage. Zuzana Růžičková was a member of just this generation, the one that saw the birth and growth of musicians in the ground tilled by a pathfinder like Wanda Landowska and the movement of musicians returning to the roots, which took place in Vienna around Nikolaus Harnoncourt: Rafael Puyana, Ruggero Gerlin, Christiane Jaccottet, Gustav Leonhardt or Robert Veyron-Lacroix.


After the Holocaust, in which she lost 17 members of her family while still a young girl, Zuzana Růžičková set to work after the war, music exorcising the atrocities which she had witnessed. In 1947 she won the Munich Competition, at which she met the Swiss harpsichordist Marguerite Roesgen-Champion, who invited her to work with her in Paris. It was the start of a long romance between the Czech harpsichordist and France, which would affectionately dub her "The grand dame of the harpsichord" and where she would go to record for the ERATO label between 1964 and 1975, one of the first complete collections of Bach for harpsichord. Apart from the love that she felt for his music, she said that she grappled with Bach in order to overcome her fear and hatred against the Germany that had made her suffer so much. This recording would receive several major awards.


In 1961, Zuzana Růžičková and conductor Vaclav Neumann founded the Prague Chamber Soloists, in a town where baroque music was already much in favour. The harpsichordist's repertoire is not only limited to the baroque period, Bach, Purcell, Scarlatti, whom she adores, but also runs to the music of her own times: the music of her compatriot Bohuslav Martinu, Béla Bartok, Manuel de Falla, Francis Poulenc, whose Concert Champêtre she plays magnificently, as she does the works of her husband, composer Viktor Kabanis.


Moving from the Pleyel harpsichord to ancient or reconstructed harpsichords, Zuzana Růžičková has made numerous solo recordings, chamber music records, and records in dialogue with Joseph Suk, Pierre Rampal and the Prague Chamber Soloists. From the start of her career, Zuzana Růžičková has also dedicated herself to teaching, in her native country in Prague and Bratislava, but also giving masterclasses in Europe and Japan, where she recorded several albums of Purcell and Bach. © FH / Qobuz

Discography

42 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller

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