Having had the opportunity to listen to Franz Liszt’s “A Faust Symphony” a couple of times over the past few days, my thoughts lighted on Carl Tausig. Amusingly, now that I think about it, it was during the movement associated with Mephistopheles. And wouldn’t you know it, today is Tausig’s birthday.
Tausig was Liszt’s supremely talented, though impish protégé. Some say that he was his greatest pupil.
Tausig joined Liszt in Weimar at the age of 14. Energetic to a fault, he got up to all sorts of mischief, including sawing the ends off piano keys in order to make the instrument more challenging to play. He also hocked the original, unpublished manuscript of “A Faust Symphony,” an entire year’s labor, for a mere pittance. Fortunately, Liszt was able to retrieve it.
Tausig then joined Richard Wagner in his political exile in Switzerland, where the boy’s boisterous behavior caused the operatic master his own share of distress. There must have been something exceptionally endearing in his personality, since he was always quickly forgiven.
At a birthday celebration for the young pianist, Liszt predicted, with a twinkle in his eye, that Tausig would become either a great blockhead or a great master.
Regrettably, his career was cut short. He died of typhoid fever, aged only 29 years.
Happy birthday, Carl Tausig, scamp to the Romantic masters.
2 Concert Etudes, Op. 1
Fantasia on Moniuszko’s “Halka”
PHOTOS: Carl Tausig (left), with Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner, looking vexed
