Zuzana Rikova, an exceptional personality upon whom the critics conferred the title First Lady of the Harpsichord, continued the pioneering efforts Wanda Landowska had made to get the harpsichord recognised as an independent concert instrument. The path she took was co-determined by her lifelong relationship to Bach, whose complete works for harpsichord she has recorded, and along it she was also accompanied by a number of friends she regularly met: Karel Anerl, Gideon Klein, Sviatoslav Richter, Josef Suk. She hasnt, however, remained merely a Bach specialist: in addition to early music, she has recorded all the classic modern harpsichord works, including Poulencs Concert champetre and her beloved Bohuslav Martins Concerto for Harpsichord, awareness of which she helped to raise all over the world. A number of pieces have been written directly for Zuzana Rikova, among them compositions by Jan Rychlik and the remarkable Sei invenzioni canonici per cembalo by Viktor Kalabis, whom the harpsichordist was married to for over half a century. This representative selection from Zuzana Rikovas highly acclaimed discography is Supraphons way of marking her 80th birthday. The overwhelming majority of these recordings are appearing on CD for the very first time. The perfect way to mark Zuzana Rikovas 80th birthday a harpsichord feast ranging from Bach to the 20th century.
