Rieger Orgelbau has completed two organs for Saint Mary’s Basilica, Kraków, Poland:
Main organ, four manuals and pedal, 62 stops, 84 ranks, 4,492 pipes
Choir organ, two manuals and pedal, 14 stops, 16 ranks, 867 pipes.
Rieger Orgelbau was commissioned in 2017 to build the new main organ and to rebuild the choir organ. In deference to the church’s extraordinary heritage, the previous historical case forms the middle—i.e., the central and adjacent smaller pipe flats—of the new main organ’s façade. Rieger’s cabinet makers added the large matching pedal towers and small pipe flats in between. Several stops from the previous organs were also re-used in both instruments.
The choir organ, with 14 stops on two manuals and pedals, playable both from its own console and from the console of the main organ, was the first to be completed. The main organ, with 62 stops on four manuals and pedal, was inaugurated in 2022.
Tonally, the 76 stops were designed in a romantic-symphonic style with a high range of timbres, an extremely wide dynamic range, and a great degree of stylistic versatility.
Since the beginning, Rieger has built organs in all parts of the world, including the United States—a sampling of the U.S. installations: Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, III/83, 2005; Pacific Union College, Angwin, California, IV/58, 1980; Nebraska, Union College, Lincoln, Nebraska, III/51, 1984; Christ Episcopal Church, Shaker Heights, Ohio, III/37, 1979.
The organs for Saint Mary’s Basilica are featured on the cover of the November 2023 issue of The Diapason:
https://www.thediapason.com/content/cover-feature-rieger-orgelbau-saint-marys-basilica-krakow-poland
For information: https://www.rieger-orgelbau.com/en
Other organ builder news:
Schantz organ at Trinity Lutheran Church, Ashland, Ohio
