Karel Ančerl

Karel Ančerl was born on April 11, 1908 in Tučapy near Soběslav into the family of a Jewish merchant.
His father Leopold owned a liquor store in Tučapy producing potato-made rum, fruit wines, and various liqueurs to his own prescriptions. The family was well-secured from running the business, in the square in Tučapy they had a spacious two-storey house with the store on the ground floor. His father had employees, owned a couple of horses with a carriage, a car for goods transport, later also a truck, and had a housekeeper attending to the household.

Both his parents were amateur pianists, his father also played the violin, there were rabbis and musicians in their family tree, music and singing belonged to the family tradition. Little Karel learned to play the violin under the guidance of the local teacher Menšík first, later he also took up the viola, sang in the school choir, and actively participated in theatre performances by local amateurs. After finishing primary school in Tučapy, where there was only a one-class school, he had a private tutor, and in 1918, when he was 10, his father sent him to study at a grammar school in Prague, where he lived under his aunt's supervision in Královské Vinohrady in Korunní Street not far from the school.

While studying at the grammar school, he took part in school cultural activities, played in the school orchestra, and led a reading club. His beginnings as a composer date back to this period. We know he wrote the stage music for the drama performance Vršovec (directed by Erik Kolár, Studentská scéna, 1925). He also occupied himself with chamber music in various ensembles and performed as a soloist with the Ota Šilhavý Orchestra as well. Furthermore, he attended the piano and music theory lessons intending to take entrance exams for the conservatory; his father, however, did not wish that. Therefore, Ančerl let himself be expelled from the grammar school and forced a fait accompli upon his father when in 1924 he was actually admitted to the conservatory behind his father’s back, surprisingly not in the study fields of violin or viola but in composition and conducting. At that time, the Prague Conservatory was located on the premises of the Emmaus Monastery Na Slovanech.

Karel Ančerl was admitted to composition studies into the class of Jaroslav Křička and to Pavel Dědeček for conducting studies. In addition to obligatory piano, timpani, and chamber music study, he also attended the composition class of Alois Hába, who taught composition and harmony in the quarter-tone and the sixth-tone system.

He finished his studies at the conservatory in June 1930 with two graduation concerts in the hall at Žofín, both with the Czech Philharmonic. In the first of them, he conducted the first movement from Beethoven's Symphony No. 6, in the other one his own Sinfonietta for orchestra.

Over time, it seems this was a crucial moment for his further musical career as he was established primarily as an excellent conductor of the Czech Philharmonic; however, his compositions from his period at the Prague Conservatory, some of which have survived, are a remarkable example of his undeniable talent for composition.

(Ivan Bierhanzl)

Titles for sale:
Five Pieces for Piano

Titles for hire:
Autumn Rose for male voice and piano