Karl Rankl

Karl Rankl (1 October 1898– 6 September 1968) was a British conductor and composer of Austrian birth. Rankl studied with Arnold Schoenberg as a private pupil for four years beginning in 1918. His first appointment was as chorus master at the Volksoper in Vienna in 1922 where he later became an assistant conductor. This was followed by appointments in Liberec in 1925, Königsberg in 1927 and the Kroll Oper in Berlin where he served as assistant to ... more

Karl Rankl (1 October 1898– 6 September 1968) was a British conductor and composer of Austrian birth. Rankl studied with Arnold Schoenberg as a private pupil for four years beginning in 1918. His first appointment was as chorus master at the Volksoper in Vienna in 1922 where he later became an assistant conductor. This was followed by appointments in Liberec in 1925, Königsberg in 1927 and the Kroll Oper in Berlin where he served as assistant to Otto Klemperer from 1928–1931. He became associated with Klemperer's advocacy of modern music. After a brief conducting stints in Wiesbaden and Graz, he became director of the Neues Deutsches Theater in Prague in 1937. While there he conducted the first performance of Krenek's Karl V. At the outbreak of World War II he took refuge in England and became a British citizen. He became music director of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in 1946, where he significantly reorganized the establishment. He recruited a new company of singers drawing... less