Karl Rankl

Karl Franz Rankl ( born October 1, 1898 in Gaaden, Lower Austria, † September 6, 1968 in St. Gilgen near Salzburg ) was an Austrian conductor and composer.

Life

Karl Franz Rankl 1918-21 studied with Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern in Vienna. First Kapellmeister at the local folk opera, 1925-27, he was director of the opera at the City Theatre in Liberec. 1927/28, Conductor at City Theatre Königsberg, 1928-31 assistant Otto Klemperer and conductor at the Kroll Opera House in Berlin, 1931/32 General Music Director of the Municipal Theatre in Wiesbaden and 1933-37 opera director at the State Theatre in Graz. 1937/38, worked at the New German Theatre in Prague, where he conducted the premiere in 1938 of Krenek's twelve-tone opera Karl V. RANKL emigrated at the outbreak of the Second World War to Great Britain and was music director 1946-51 of the Covent Garden Opera. 1952-57, he led the Scottish National Orchestra in Glasgow and Edinburgh and 1958-60 was musical director of the Elizabethan Opera Company in Sydney.

RANKL has composed eight symphonies, the oratory Man and the opera Deirdre of the Sorrows, which was commissioned for the "Festival of Britain" in 1951, but was not premiered until today.