November 2023

Rieger Orgelbau, Schwarzach, Austria; Saint Mary’s Basilica, Kraków, Poland

Visitors flock to Kraków. The city, which dates back to the seventh century, was Poland’s capital until the end of the sixteenth century. Left relatively unscathed after World War II and declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978, Kraków, with its cultural, artistic, and academic heritage from the Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque periods up to present times, is generally regarded as one of Europe’s most beautiful cities.

Editor’s note: the scores to works mentioned in this article may be found online for free access.

Max Reger, Zwölf Stücke, opus 59

Reger, Introduction, Passacaglia, und Fugue in E Minor, opus 127

Teachers

Johann Sebastian Bach: Partitas, BWV 825–830, Wolfgang Rübsam, Lute-Harpsichord. Brilliant Classics 2-CD set, 96464, $14.99, available from arkivmusic.com and amazon.com.

Stephen Black

Stephen Black died June 25. He was born August 30, 1967, in Louisville, Kentucky. He attended the University of Louisville and received a Master of Musical Arts degree in conducting and organ from the Yale Institute of Sacred Music/Yale School of Music, New Haven, Connecticut, in 1999. At Yale, he directed the Battell Chapel Choir and was the recipient of the Richard French Prize in Choral Conducting. Black went on to earn a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Southern California.