The revered Czech harpsichordist, known for her recordings of Bach, has died in Prague at age 90.

The first musician to record the complete works of Bach for keyboard, and a key figure in the revival of the harpsichord, Zuzana Růžičková died on Wednesday after a brief illness.

Her story is one of extraordinary resilience. Born in 1927 to Jewish parents, Růžičková started keyboard lessons at the age of nine. Before long, her teacher was so impressed by her talent that she began preparing her to study with Wanda Landowska in Paris. But the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1939 meant those plans would never come to pass. In 1942, when she was 15, Růžičková was sent with her family to the concentration camp at Theresienstadt, where her father and grandfather died. Later, she was transported to Auchswitz-Birkenau and then to the death camp at Bergen-Belsen, which was eventually liberated by the British Army. In all, Růžičková survived three years of malnutrition, forced labour, a host of diseases and the constant threat of the gas chambers.

^{Zuzana Růžičková 1927 – 2017. Photo © Warner Classics & Erato/Martin Divisek} 

After the war...