Karel Ančerl (11 April 1908 – 3 July 1973), was a Czech conductor, known for his performances of contemporary music and for his interpretations of music by Czech composers. His recordings with Czech Philharmonic acquired many international awards (several times Golden Harmony Award, Grand Prix du disque, etc.) and digitalized titled, Karel Ančerl Gold Edition was awarded by Grand Prix du Disque de l'Académie Charles Cros.
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He was born in Tučapy, South Bohemian Region into a Jewish family. His father Leopold was a large-scale producer of liquors and spirits. After graduating from the gymnasium (primary and secondary school) in Prague (1918–24) he entered the Prague Conservatory in 1926. He studied composition, conducting, chamber music, violin and percussion. In 1931 he participated at the Munich premiere of Alois Hába's quarter-tone opera Mother. Ančerl studied under Hermann Scherchen and later worked with Václav Talich, among others. In 1931 he started his conducting career with the Osvobozené divadlo theatre. During 1931-33, he markedly improved the theatre orchestra.[1] From 1933 to 1939, he conducted for the Czechoslovak radio, but his career as a conductor was interrupted by World War II.
He was sent with his family to the Theresienstadt concentration camp (Terezín) on 12 November 1942. There, he became the leader of the Terezín String Orchestra and started to organize cultural and music life in the ghetto. His final performance was for the propaganda film Der Führer schenkt den Juden eine Stadt (The Führer Gives the Jews a City) directed, under coercion of the camp commandant Rahm, by Kurt Gerron to fool the Red Cross. The film showed Ančerl conducting a work by Pavel Haas on a wooden pavilion, with flowerpots hiding the fact that many of the orchestra were barefoot. The film also featured Martin Roman's big band, the Ghetto Swingers. As soon as the film was over, Gerron, Ančerl, Haas, Roman and all those who had participated in the film were herded into cattle trucks for the final transport to Auschwitz on 15 October 1944. Ančerl managed to survive Auschwitz, but his wife Valy and son Jan (born in Terezín) perished in the gas chambers.
After the war, he conducted for the Prague Radio until 1950, and rose to fame when appointed (on 20 October 1950) artistic director of the Czech Philharmonic. His eighteen-year tenure with this orchestra is often regarded as its greatest period, which brought it much international recognition. In August 1968, after the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, he decided to emigrate to Toronto, Canada. He conducted his last two concerts with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra at the Prague Spring Festival in 1969. He conducted the Toronto Symphony Orchestra from 1968 until his death in Toronto in 1973.
Some of his notable pupils include Brian Jackson, Štěpán Koníček, Libor Pešek, Jan Tausinger, and Martin Turnovský.
Ančerl's remarkable control of orchestral dynamics, along with an exceptional grasp of both musical form and detail made him an especially effective recording artist. His broad range of recordings for the Czech Supraphon label have been carefully preserved with digital technology. In addition to performances of Czech masters Antonín Dvořák, Bedřich Smetana, Leoš Janáček, Bohuslav Martinů and Miloslav Kabeláč, Ančerl interpreted early 20th century masters Igor Stravinsky, Béla Bartók, Sergei Prokofiev and the Toronto-based organist/composer Healey Willan. His 1968 Gustav Mahler Symphony No. 9 is widely admired.
As a conductor, Ančerl followed a recognizably Czech tradition and, along with Václav Talich, Karel Šejna, Václav Neumann and numerous others, he helped to create a sense of tradition and a definable sound world related to a definable sense of Czech music. Sharp rhythms, vibrant dynamics, and a strongly etched sound world were hall-marks of his conducting style. These aspects were most noticeable when he conducted his home orchestra - the Czech Philharmonic, but he also managed to get orchestras as diverse as the Toronto Symphony, the Vienna Symphony and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra to also play with a sharp, distinctive and altogether Czech sound. In recent years not only have his many Supraphon recordings been reissued on CD but performances with these other orchestras have also surfaced on labels such as Tahra, CBC Records and EMI. Labels such as Line Classics have issued some radio recordings made during the late 1940s, when Ančerl returned to Prague. To date, operas by Smetana and Dvořák have also surfaced. A video of a rehearsal with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra has also been issued and it depicts the two key elements of his conducting style - a fastidious attention to detail and an infectious sense of rhythm and vibrancy.
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