Karl Tausig


Karl Tausig was a Polish virtuoso pianist, arranger and composer. He is generally accepted as Franz Liszt's most esteemed pupil, and one of the greatest pianists of all time.

Life

Tausig was born in Warsaw to Jewish parents and received his first piano lessons from his father, pianist and composer Aloys Tausig, a student of Sigismond Thalberg. His father introduced him to Franz Liszt in Weimar at the age of 14. He quickly became a favorite pupil of Liszt's, travelling with him on concert tours and studying counterpoint, composition and orchestration in addition to his piano lessons. At the age of 16 he met Richard Wagner, of whom he became a devoted follower and friend. He also became a great admirer and friend of Johannes Brahms. Tausig made piano arrangements of many of Wagner's operas. He also introduced to Wagner his friend Peter Cornelius, another Wagner devotee.
In 1858 Tausig made his debut in Berlin at a concert conducted by Hans von Bülow. While some critics admired his technical feats at the keyboard, others found his playing noisy and overbearing. Even some who were more accommodating of Tausig's "Lisztian eccentricities" felt he would play better as he matured. Tausig toured through various German towns in 1859–60, making Dresden his base. He moved to Vienna in 1862; there he gave concerts of modern orchestral music, including some of his own symphonic poems. These concerts were only partially successful artistically and a failure financially. After staying out of public view for a few years, during which time he married pianist Seraphine von Vrabely, he began touring once again and was now considered a pianist of breadth and dignity of style.
Tausig settled in Germany and opened a piano school in Berlin in 1865 which, however, closed soon afterwards. He toured throughout Europe, but the strain of travelling weakened his health. He died in Leipzig from typhoid at the age of 29. His grave is preserved in the Protestant Friedhof III der Jerusalems- und Neuen Kirchengemeinde in Berlin-Kreuzberg, south of Hallesches Tor.

Pianism

Tausig was considered by some critics to be the greatest of Liszt's pupils, pianistically speaking, and to carry pure virtuosity to heights only suggested by Liszt. Anton Rubinstein called him "the infallible." Where Tausig differed from his teacher was in his lack of flamboyant gestures while playing. Tausig sat motionless at the piano and abhorred what he called Spektakel. While his fingers were working miracles at the keyboard without any digital errors, the only sign of tension from Tausig would be a slight tightening of one corner of his mouth.
Until his untimely death, some critics surmise that Tausig may not have had a pianistic equal, combining Liszt's force and range of tone color with the intellectuality of his fellow pupil Hans von Bülow. Another Liszt pupil, Eugen d'Albert, compared Tausig very favorably with their teacher. He said that while Liszt's musical conceptions were grander, Tausig possessed a better and more accurate technique coupled with a good deal of poetry.

Repertory

Tausig's repertory was extensive; he could play from memory works ranging from Scarlatti to Liszt. He was especially noted for his interpretations of Chopin, Weber and Beethoven, both for pianistic finish and intensity of emotion.

Works

Karl Tausig's output as composer is quite small. As well as entirely original works, he arranged for piano music of a number of composers, and wrote a number of pedagogic works.
In the following list, unpublished works are shown. Some further works are also unpublished or lost, and are not listed. Besides the transcriptions of eight Liszt symphonic poems listed here, Tausig also arranged another three, but the manuscripts are not sufficiently intact to be accessible. See Dennis Hennig's article in the Liszt Society Journal volume 17, p.65 for more details. Some works were left incomplete by Tausig; where possible, details of the state of the manuscript are given.
All works listed are for piano solo unless indicated otherwise.
Original compositions:
Paraphrases, Fantasies, Elaborations:
Transcriptions, Adaptations, Piano scores:
was the first to record an all-Tausig album, in the 1970s on the Candide LP label. Artur Cimirro recorded an album containing some of Tausig's original compositions, for the Acte Préalable CD label. Dennis Hennig has released three all-Tausig albums for the Etcetera label: all five of the Valse-Caprices and the three Schubert transcriptions, an album of Tausig's Wagner transcriptions including the four-hand version of Ride of the Valkyres, and four of Tausig's transcriptions of Liszt symphonic poems.
Historically, Tausig's arrangement of Strauss's waltz You Only Live Once! was recorded by Sergei Rachmaninov and Ignacy Jan Paderewski. Rachmaninov also made recordings of Tausig's transcription of Schumann's Der Kontrabandiste and Tausig's Pastorale in E minor, adaptated from Scarlatti's harpsichord Sonata, L. 413, the latter also being popular with several other pianists of that era. The Bach Toccata and Fugue in D minor adaptation and the Schubert/Tausig Marche Militaire were also quite popular in recordings, the latter being recorded by Egon Petri, among others.