#tausig

Schumann/Tausig - Der Kontrabandiste (Emil Gilels)

OTD in Music History: Important Polish virtuoso pianist Carl Tausig (1841 – 1871) dies from typhoid in Leipzig, at the age of just 29. Tausig was Franz Liszt’s (1811 – 1886) greatest student, and he was universally hailed as one of the finest pianists of his day. Indeed, he was one of the few musicians able to juggle simultaneous friendships with both Richard Wagner (1813 – 1883) and Johannes Brahms (1833 – 1897) – two titans who generally operated as antithetical and antipodal forces in the German music world. (The fact that Tausig was ethnically Jewish did not phase Wagner. In a letter to Liszt, Wagner declared that “as a musician he is of course enormously talented, and his furious piano playing makes me tremble… but this youth also pleases me immensely in other ways, for although he frequently misbehaves like a naughty boy, he speaks like an old man with a pronounced character!”) It was actually misbehaving Tausig who indirectly caused the only direct correspondence that ever transpired between Wagner and Brahms. At some point, Tausig borrowed from Wagner’s manuscript copy of the score to “Tannhauser." Years later, knowing that Brahms was a passionate manuscript collector, he presented it to Brahms as a gift. When Wagner discovered this, however, he wrote Brahms a letter explaining that Tausig had given away something that wasn’t his and requesting the return of the manuscript. Brahms sent it back, along with a brief letter, and in return Wagner shipped him a deluxe first printed edition of “Das Rheingold” containing a personalized inscription. Russian pianist Anton Rubinstein (1829 – 1894) nicknamed Tausig “The Infallible.” Unlike his famous teacher, however, Tausig abhorred theatricality and showmanship; instead, he preferred to sit motionless at the piano, performing miracles with his fingers alone... PICTURED: One of Tausig’s personal visiting cards, on which he wrote the following message (in German): “Dear Mr. Thomas, I highly recommend to you Mr. Pinner, a very talented and intelligent student of mine. Perhaps you could let him perform in one of your great concerts? A thousand greetings from your devoted, Carl Tausig, Berlin, 21 April, '69."

Tausig Nocturne opus 3

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