Horst Förster (conductor, 1920)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Horst Förster (born March 13, 1920 in Dresden ; † June 30, 1986 there ) was a German conductor , choir director , violinist and university professor. In 1952 he was appointed GDR's youngest general music director in Eisenach . Afterwards he was chief conductor of the State Symphony Orchestra and the Robert-Franz-Singakademie in Halle (1956–1964) and the Dresden Philharmonic (1964–1966).

Life

Horst Förster was born in Dresden in 1920 as the son of Willibald Förster and his wife Martha Ziesche. From 1936 to 1940 he completed his musical training at the orchestra school of the Saxon State Orchestra . His teachers included u. a. Jan Dahmen (violin), Lothar Köhnke (piano, theory and composition), Kurt Striegler (conducting) and Alfred Stier (choir director). At times he was a member of the Dresden Philharmonic under Paul van Kempen . After World War II he was until 1950 repetiteur same place the second violins. In 1947 he founded a chamber orchestra there, which he directed for three years.

Then he went to the Stadttheater Eisenach in Thuringia. On January 1, 1951, he succeeded Peter Schmitz as director of the Philharmonic Orchestra . This was then subordinated to the theater as a theater and concert orchestra under the name Landeskapelle Eisenach . In 1952 he was appointed the youngest general music director of the GDR.

After initially being a guest conductor, he served as chief conductor of the State Symphony Orchestra and the Robert Franz Singing Academy in Halle (Saale) from 1956 to 1964, succeeding Werner Gößling . He repeatedly took part in the Handel Festival there. According to Gilbert Stöck , he struck “a quite independent path in the program conception” in the city of Saale, which met with criticism in the Ministry of Culture . In coordination with the Halle-Magdeburg district association of the GDR Composers' Association (VDK), he founded the contemporary music series "Musica Viva" in the 1956/57 season, in which works by living composers from the region should be performed. In 1956 he presented Walter Draeger's violin concerto on the occasion of the Hallesche Musiktage , which he helped initiate . Förster's refusal to join the VDK, however, resulted in a public controversy with Walther Siegmund-Schultze . Afterwards, "[Förster] adapted himself to certain political guidelines", whereby he aimed at "ensuring the quality of performances of contemporary music" without sustainably promoting composers from the region, according to Stöck. In 1962 Förster premiered Ernst Hermann Meyer's Piano Concerto with the Dresden Philharmonic and Dieter Zechlin as soloists . He also appeared with a Mozart-Beethoven-Schumann cycle as a guest conductor with the Berlin City Symphony Orchestra . He has been repeatedly invited abroad, for example in 1963 he made guest appearances with the Riga Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra in the Soviet Union. A year later he conducted the National Philharmonic in Warsaw.

From September 1964 to 1966 he was chief conductor of the Dresden Philharmonic. He opened the 1964/65 season with a concert with the American violinist Ruggiero Ricci . After Förster had been criticized by the state in Halle for his overly western repertoire, he tried to serve more composers from Eastern Europe in Dresden. In addition, he continued the contemporary music cultivation of his predecessor Heinz Bongartz . He premiered the Rhapsody for Orchestra by Johannes Paul Thilman , the Concerto for Piano (with Annerose Schmidt ) and the Symphonic Concerto by Gerhard Rosenfeld and the cantatas Eros by Fidelio F. Finke and Schir Haschirim by Rudolf Wagner-Régeny . During his years in office in Dresden, too, he was a guest conductor abroad, such as in Chile in 1965. Together with Bongartz he went on an extensive orchestral concert tour to West Germany in the same year. More and more, however, Förster's strength dwindled due to illness. Until 1965 he was supported by the second conductor Gerhard Rolf Bauer , then by the guest conductors György Lehel , Klaus Tennstedt and Heinz Rögner as well as Dieter Härtwig . Förster's successor was Kurt Masur .

In 1957 he received a teaching position and in 1961 a professorship at the German University of Music in Berlin . Until his engagement in Dresden he led a conducting class there. After his illness he worked as a university lecturer again. His students included u. a. Peter Aderhold , Hans-Dieter Baum , Christian Ehwald , Helmut Gleim , Hartmut Haenchen , Christian Kluttig , Volker Rohde and Jörg-Peter Weigle . In Eisenach he promoted the young bandmaster Rolf Reuter .

From 1943 he was with Liesbeth Förster, b. Schuriczek, married.

Awards

literature

  • Susanne Baselt: Chronicle of the Philharmonic State Orchestra Halle . Part I: 1946 to 1964 . Edited by the management of the Philharmonic State Orchestra Halle, Halle (Saale) 1999, p. 82ff.
  • Dieter Härtwig : From Horst Förster to Michel Plasson. New music with the Dresden Philharmonic (1964–1999) . In: Matthias Herrmann , Hanns-Werner Heister (Ed.): Dresden and advanced music in the 20th century. Report on the colloquium organized by the Dresden Center for Contemporary Music and the Institute for Musicology at the "Carl Maria von Weber" Academy of Music in Dresden (= Music in Dresden . Vol. 6). Part 3: 1966-1999 . Laaber, Laaber 2004, ISBN 3-89007-511-8 , pp. 211-223.
  • Gilbert Stöck: New music in the districts of Halle and Magdeburg during the GDR. Compositions, politics, institutions . Schröder, Leipzig 2008, ISBN 978-3-926196-50-7 , p. 242ff.
  • City of Eisenach, Urania cultural and educational association Gotha eV (Ed.): Eisenacher personalities. A biographical lexicon. [Pocket dictionary. A project of the Urania Kultur- und Bildungsverein Gotha eV and the city of Eisenach] . Rhino-Verlag, Weimar 2004, ISBN 3-932081-45-5 , p. 45.
  • Herbert A. Frenzel , Hans Joachim Moser (ed.): Kürschner's biographical theater manual. Drama, opera, film, radio. Germany, Austria, Switzerland . de Gruyter, Berlin 1956, p. 178.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ [Obituary] . In: Neues Deutschland , July 11, 1986, vol. 41, issue 162, p. 7.
  2. ↑ Horst Förster's life data in the Sächsische Biografie , saebi.isgv.de, access: April 1, 2020.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h City of Eisenach, Urania Culture and Education Association Gotha eV (Ed.): Eisenach personalities. A biographical lexicon. [Pocket dictionary. A project of the Urania Kultur- und Bildungsverein Gotha eV and the city of Eisenach] . Rhino-Verlag, Weimar 2004, ISBN 3-932081-45-5 , p. 45.
  4. ^ A b Susanne Baselt: Chronicle of the Philharmonic State Orchestra Halle . Part I: 1946 to 1964 . Edited by the management of the Philharmonic State Orchestra Halle, Halle (Saale) 1999, p. 82.
  5. ↑ a b c Dieter Härtwig: 125 years of the Dresden Philharmonic . In the S. (Ed.): 125 years of the Dresden Philharmonic. 1870-1995 . DZA Verlag für Kultur und Wissenschaft, Altenburg 1995, ISBN 3-9804226-5-8 , pp. 22-103, here: p. 62.
  6. ↑ About us , philharmonischeskammerorchesterdresden.de, accessed April 1, 2020.
  7. ^ A b Horst Förster, Eckart Schwinger: Musical beauty as a leitmotif. Conversation with the chief conductor of the Dresden Philharmonic, Prof. Horst Förster . In: Neue Zeit , April 28, 1965, vol. 20, issue 98, p. 8.
  8. ↑ Claus Oefner :  Eisenach. In: Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): The music in past and present . Second edition, factual part, volume 2 (Bolero - Encyclopedie). Bärenreiter / Metzler, Kassel et al. 1995, ISBN 3-7618-1103-9  ( online edition , subscription required for full access)
  9. ^ A b Gilbert Stöck: New music in the districts of Halle and Magdeburg at the time of the GDR. Compositions, politics, institutions . Schröder, Leipzig 2008, ISBN 978-3-926196-50-7 , p. 242.
  10. ↑ Hansjürgen Schaefer : Art of light and joy. For the seventh time: Handel Festival in Halle . In: Berliner Zeitung , June 14, 1958, vol. 14, issue 135, p. 3; Heino Lüdicke: Handel's musical legacy. Guests from all over the world at the celebrations in honor of the great composer in Halle . In: Neue Zeit , April 14, 1959, vol. 15, issue 86, p. 4.
  11. ^ A b Gilbert Stöck: New music in the districts of Halle and Magdeburg at the time of the GDR. Compositions, politics, institutions . Schröder, Leipzig 2008, ISBN 978-3-926196-50-7 , p. 242f.
  12. ^ A b Gilbert Stöck: New music in the districts of Halle and Magdeburg at the time of the GDR. Compositions, politics, institutions . Schröder, Leipzig 2008, ISBN 978-3-926196-50-7 , p. 246.
  13. ^ Gilbert Stöck: New music in the districts of Halle and Magdeburg at the time of the GDR. Compositions, politics, institutions . Schröder, Leipzig 2008, ISBN 978-3-926196-50-7 , p. 243ff.
  14. ↑ E.Sr .: Event in the new musical creation . Piano concerto by Ernst Hermann Meyer premiered in Dresden . In: Neue Zeit , January 12, 1962, vol. 18, issue 10, p. 4.
  15. ^ HL: clarinet, piano and violin. Orchestra and chamber music in Berlin concert halls . In: Neue Zeit , February 7, 1961, vol. 17, edition 32, p. 4.
  16. ↑ Prof. Förster conducted in Leningrad and Riga . In: Neues Deutschland , March 7, 1963, vol. 18, issue 66, p. 5.
  17. ^ Festive Haydn performance . In: Neues Deutschland , January 28, 1964, vol. 19, edition 28, p. 4.
  18. ^ Sr .: New Dresden chief conductors. First concerts by Kurt Sonderling and Horst Förster . In: Neue Zeit , September 17, 1964, vol. 20, issue 218, p. 4.
  19. ↑ a b c d Dieter Härtwig : From Horst Förster to Michel Plasson. New music with the Dresden Philharmonic (1964–1999) . In: Matthias Herrmann , Hanns-Werner Heister (Ed.): Dresden and advanced music in the 20th century. Report on the colloquium organized by the Dresden Center for Contemporary Music and the Institute for Musicology at the "Carl Maria von Weber" Academy of Music in Dresden (= Music in Dresden . Vol. 6). Part 3: 1966-1999 . Laaber, Laaber 2004, ISBN 3-89007-511-8 , pp. 211-223, here: p. 211.
  20. ^ Karl Laux : Thilman premiere . In: Neues Deutschland , January 20, 1966, vol. 21, edition 20, p. 4.
  21. ↑ Hans Böhm : From the "pantomime" to the piano. The development of Siegfried Thiele from Leipzig . In: Neue Zeit , February 15, 1966, vol. 20, issue 38, p. 4.
  22. ↑ es: love songs not only for the youth. World premiere by Fidelio F. Finke and Rudolf Wagner-Regeny in Dresden . In: Neue Zeit , May 18, 1966, vol. 20, issue 115, p. 4.
  23. ^ Dieter Härtwig : Dresden Philharmonic. World premieres and selected premieres 1964–1999 . In: Matthias Herrmann , Hanns-Werner Heister (Ed.): Dresden and advanced music in the 20th century. Report on the colloquium organized by the Dresden Center for Contemporary Music and the Institute for Musicology at the "Carl Maria von Weber" Academy of Music in Dresden (= Music in Dresden . Vol. 6). Part 3: 1966-1999 . Laaber, Laaber 2004, ISBN 3-89007-511-8 , p. 224ff.
  24. ^ JM: Successful concert in Santiago. Professor Horst Förster conducted in Chile . In: Neue Zeit , September 5, 1965, vol. 20, issue 208, p. 10.
  25. ↑ A master concert. Enthusiasm for the Dresden Philharmonic in West Germany . In: Neue Zeit , October 12, 1965, vol. 20, issue 239, p. 4.
  26. ↑ From culture and science . In: Neues Deutschland , September 12, 1961, vol. 16, edition 252, p. 4.
  27. ↑ a b Christoph Rink: Chronology of the Handel price . In: Announcements of the Friends and Sponsors of the Handel House in Halle eV 1/2012, pp. 20–25, here: p. 23.
  28. ↑ High awards . In: Neues Deutschland , October 6, 1963, vol. 18, edition 274, p. 8.
personal data
SURNAME Forester, Horst
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German conductor, choir director, violinist and university lecturer
DATE OF BIRTH March 13, 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH Dresden
DATE OF DEATH June 30, 1986
Place of death Dresden