Förster, Alban

Alban Förster – Symphony in E-Dur

(b. Reichenbach im Vogtland, 23. Oktober 1849 – d. Neustrelitz, 18. Januar 1916)

(ca. 1885)

Allegro vivace e cantabile (p. 1)
Adagio ma non troppo (p. 59)
Scherzo: Presto ma non assai (p. 79) – Trio: Allegro grazioso (p. 93)
Allegro risoluto (p. 102)

In 2012, Rudolf Rohrmaier’s book Hofkapellmeister Alban Förster. Ein Reichenbacher Musiker im Spiegelbild seiner Zeitgenossen was published as volume 30 of the Neuberin Museum’s publication series in Reichenbach im Vogtland. This was the first detailed biography on the life and work of the composer, violinist and conductor born in Reichenbach in 1849. As part of his research, the author Rudolf Rohrmaier also travelled to Neustrelitz, the city where Förster spent nine years as first violinist of the court orchestra and 26 years as court conductor. There Rohrmaier realised that less than 100 years after Förster’s death in 1916, the composer had been completely forgotten: his grave no longer existed, there were no memorial plaques at the three addresses where he had lived over the years, and no street was named after him.1 The lack of posthumous interest in Förster in his adopted home can be explained, at least in part, by the fact that the end of his career at the court of the Grand Dukes of Mecklenburg-Strelitz came at a time of cultural stagnation. Förster had voluntarily retired in 1908, apparently because he did not feel sufficiently appreciated by Grand Duke Adolf Frederick V. (1848–1914), who favoured the acting theatre over the opera and had a long-standing affair with the actress Dora Urbas. Not long after the resignation of the court conductor the Grand Duke abolished the music theatre. The plans of his successor Adolf Frederick VI. (1882–1918), who reigned from 1914, to re-establish a regular opera and concert business were prevented by the First World War. As a result, the memory of Förster’s life’s work began to fade even before his death. …

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