Posted by Ross on February 22, 1999 at 23:00:41:
Carl Tausig (1841-1871), Liszt's finest pupil, was a phenomenal pianist, described as "infallible" by Anton Rubinstein, and "unsurpable, superb" by Hans von Bulow. Liszt first received him at age thirteen and immediately proclaimed, "He is one in a thousand." Apart from a few interruptions, Tausig remained Liszt's pupil from 1855 to 1859. He was a prankster, and apparently some of his tricks weren't entirely harmless. Once, he sold the as yet unpublished mcript of "A Faust Symphony" for five thalers, without his teacher's knowledge!
He was packed off to Wagner for a while, and Wagner's reaction was one of delight and horror: "My childless marriage has suddenly been blessed with a real catastrophe, and I am enjoying, in rapid succession, the quintessence of a father's cares and troubles.... Musically, however, he is enormously talented, and his furious piano playing makes me shudder." "I recently wrote to you in uninhibited terms concerning this young Tausig. Two things make me overlook all his shortcomings, and bind me to him to such a degree that I am almost inclined to trust him: they are his boundless love for you and the way he stops being the moment the conversation turns to you, when he shows the most tender and profound reverence towards you...."
Tausig seemed uniquely suited to a virtuoso career, yet it was not one which gave him any lasting satisfaction. He studied philosophy, mathematics, and natural science. In 1862, he went to Vienna and conducted concerts made up entirely of Wagner's works. In 1865, he founded a "School for of Advanced Piano Playing" in Berlin. On 2 July 1871, he travelled to Leipzig with Liszt, and the next day he contracted typhus. He died on the 17th, and the hands which Liszt described as "des mains de bronze ey de diamants" were laid to rest forever.