Josef Bohuslav Foerster

Josef Bohuslav Foerster (30 December 1859 – 29 May 1951) was a Czech composer and musicologist.

His ancestors were of Bohemian German ethnicity, but had assimilated into the Czech community.

His father, a composer also named Josef Foerster, taught at the Conservatory.

He taught music; one of his early students was composer and Stuttgart court pianist Anna Sick.

In 1903 Berta went to sing at the Vienna Hofoper, and so Josef moved there with her, continuing to make a living as a music critic.

He returned to Prague on the foundation of the Czechoslovak Republic in 1918, thereafter teaching at the conservatory and the university.

Foerster's opera Eva is another example, like Leoš Janáček's Jenůfa, of a libretto based on a play by Gabriela Preissová, though his treatment differs.

182 (1943); and the last, written 1950–1, completed by Jan Hanuš[6][7]); three piano trios, two violin and two cello sonatas, and a several-times-recorded wind quintet), at least five operas (notably Eva), concertos for cello (Op.

Many of his works remember family members: the 2nd Symphony is dedicated to his sister Marie; his brother's death led to the cantata Mortuis fratribus; his son is commemorated in the Piano Trio and the 5th Symphony; and his mother is a theme throughout his oeuvre.