16 Facts About Karl Tausig

Karl Tausig was a Polish virtuoso pianist, arranger and composer.

Karl Tausig is generally regarded as Franz Liszt's most distinguished pupil and one of the greatest pianists of all time.

Karl Tausig 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, and even taking on one of Liszt's pupils, Regina Watson, as his own.

Karl Tausig made piano arrangements of many of Wagner's operas.

Karl Tausig introduced to Wagner his friend Peter Cornelius, another Wagner devotee.

Karl Tausig single-handedly raised the money to build the Bayreuth Theater for performances of Wagner's operas.

In 1858, Karl Tausig made his debut in Berlin at a concert conducted by Hans von Bulow.

Karl Tausig moved to Vienna in 1862; there he gave concerts of modern orchestral music, including some of his own symphonic poems.

Karl Tausig made several concert tours in Germany and Russia, and throughout Europe, and was now considered a pianist of breadth and dignity of style.

In June 1871 toward the end of his life, too weak to concertize, he was cared for by his longtime friend, Marie von Mouchanoff-Kalergis, a pianist who in her youth had been a pupil of Chopin, and to whom Karl Tausig had dedicated his first composition, an Impromptu.

Karl Tausig's grave is preserved in the Protestant Friedhof III der Jerusalems- und Neuen Kirchengemeinde in Berlin-Kreuzberg, south of Hallesches Tor.

Karl Tausig was considered by some critics to be the greatest of Liszt's pupils and to carry pure piano virtuosity to heights only suggested by Liszt.

Karl Tausig sat motionless at the piano and abhorred what he called Spektakel.

Karl Tausig said that while Liszt's musical conceptions were grander, Tausig possessed a better and more accurate technique coupled with a good deal of poetry.

Karl Tausig's repertory was extensive; he could play from memory works ranging from Scarlatti to Liszt.

Karl Tausig was especially noted for his interpretations of Chopin, Weber and Beethoven, both for pianistic finish and intensity of emotion.