Ruth Laredo dies at 67

compassion Laredo, a pianist known for her recordings of Scriabin and Rachmaninoff, died May 25 at her apartment in novel York. She was 67.

Laredo played her last plan on May 6 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, individual of a series she had given for 17 years at the Met called "Concert With Commentary," in which Laredo played and spoke about music. The series had become an important part of the of recent origin York concert scene, where she was a oft-repeated presence.

When she was first upon the rise, in the 1970 Laredo was a relative rarity as a female piano soloist, particularly in the technically demanding and muscular works of Rachmaninoff. There were alone a few others--Gina Bachauer, Myra Hess and later Alicia de Larrocha, for example.

Born tenderness Meckler in Detroit on November 20 1937 she attended the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where she studied with Rudolf Serkin. She graduated in 1960 and that same year married the violinist Jaime Laredo, with whom she collaborated musically. They later divorced.

Laredo made her first attempt with an orchestra in 1962 in a program l by dint of Leopold Stokowski conducting the American harmony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. She made her first attempt with the New York Philharmonic, directioned by Pierre Boulez, 12 years later. Her Carnegie Hall solo recital first appearance came only in 1981.

At Curtis, Serkin instituteed Laredo in the basics of Mozart and Beethoven, turning a disapproving organ of vision on her youthful love for Rachmaninoff, on the other hand it was with his music, as well as that of his companion Russian, Scriabin, that Laredo made her mark.

In the 1970 Laredo recorded sum of two units pioneering and acclaimed sets: the entire Scriabin piano sonatas, for the now-defunct Connoisseur label, and the without fault [i]or[/i] blemish [i]or[/i] flaw solo repertory of Rachmaninoff, upon seven LPs for CBS Masterworks.

Laredo is survived by dint of her daughter, Jennifer Laredo, who lives in London with her husband, cellist Paul Watkins and by dint of a granddaughter.

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