Carl Tausig

Carl Tausig (actually Karol Tausig ; born November 4, 1841 in Warsaw , † July 14, 1871 in Leipzig ) was a Polish pianist , composer and music teacher .

Life

Carl Tausig received his first musical training from his father, the composer and Thalberg student Aloys T. Tausig (1820–1885). At the age of 14 he went to Weimar to take lessons from Franz Liszt , whose favorite pupil he soon became.

Tausig made his concert debut in Berlin in 1858 and then went on a concert tour throughout Germany for two years. He met Richard Wagner in Zurich and was soon one of his followers. After a stopover in Dresden , he went to Vienna in 1862 , where he was not recognized. Here, together with Johannes Brahms, he performed his Sonata for two pianos in F minor, Op. 34, for the first time on April 17, 1864.

Tausig made a name for himself as the arranger of numerous piano pieces by well-known composers.

In 1865 he married Seraphine von Vrabely and settled in Berlin. There he opened a school of high piano playing . At the beginning of 1871 he agreed to actively support Wagner's festival idea and, together with his pupil Marie von Schleinitz, founded the Bayreuth Patronage Association , which he took over management. Shortly before his death, he went on several celebrated concert tours through Germany and Russia.

Death and grave

The grave of Carl Tausig in Berlin-Kreuzberg with a reproduction of the portrait relief

Carl Tausig died of typhus fever on July 14, 1871 at the age of 29 in Leipzig . Carl Bechstein , who belonged to Tausig's close circle of friends, arranged for the body to be transferred to Berlin and buried in Cemetery III of the Jerusalem and New Churches in front of Hallesches Tor . Bechstein also financed the grave monument, which was ceremoniously unveiled on June 25, 1873. In accordance with a developing taste of the time, it was a worked boulder made of syenite , in the front of which a marble tondo was embedded with the portrait of the deceased in profile, as well as an inscription plate with an epitaph specially written by Richard Wagner:

Be ready to die

Life's hesitant sprouting fruit,

Acquire them early

In Lenze's suddenly blossoming escape_

Was it your lot, was it your chariot

We must lament your lot like your chariot.

(Richard Wagner)

The grave monument is the work of Gustav Blaeser . The marble tondo was lost around 1945 and was replaced in 1986 by a photo etching made of copper. Since the restoration of the grave monument after 2011, a reproduction of the portrait relief has replaced the original. The initiative for this came from the actor Hans-Jürgen Schatz .

Works

Waltz caprices after J. Strauss
Deux Etudes de Concert
The ghost ship
Hungarian gypsy tunes
Piano arrangement of Franz Liszt's Symphonic Poems (unpublished)
Piano transcriptions and paraphrases of Richard Wagner's operas

Chess passion

Tausig played chess with passion and measured himself against very strong opposition. The Neue Berliner Schachzeitung described him in 1868 as "one of the most ardent chess friends in the north German metropolis." In a handicap game he achieved a masterful victory over the world-class player Johannes Hermann Zukertort :

	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H
8th									8th
7th									7th
6th									6th
5									5
4th									4th
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H

White: zukertort; Black: thousand; played in Berlin on May 14, 1868; Black moves.

Chess master Zukertort had specified a knight at the beginning of the game. In a sharp position, in which White has run far ahead with his king's wing pawns, Tausig finds a brilliant combination: 1 ... Nf6-g4 !! Black sacrifices the knight back and receives a devastating attack that White can no longer fend off. 2. Qe2xg4 Bd6xh2 + 3.Kg1-f2 3.Kg2 or 3.Kh1 would also result in the same answer from Black. 3 ... e4-e3 +! 4.Bd2xe3 Re8-e4! Black sacrificed his e-pawn in order to free up the e4 square for his rook. Tausig now attacks Zukertort's lady, who has to escape. 5.Qg4-h3 Rf8-e8! Prepare the final chord. White reaches for one last straw: 6.g5-g6 with threats against f7 and h7, but Black has prepared a brilliant queen sacrifice with which he crowns his brilliant combination: 6 ... Qc7-f4 + !! and Zukertort gave up. 7.Bxf4 is followed by a surprising mate with 7 ... Re2.

literature

Robert Eitner : Tausig, Karl . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 37, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1894, p. 473 f.

Web links

Commons : Carl Tausig - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Works by and about Carl Tausig in the catalog of the German National Library
Works by and about Carl Tausig in the German Digital Library
Sheet music and audio files by Carl Tausig in the International Music Score Library Project

Individual evidence

^ Hans-Jürgen Mende : Lexicon of Berlin burial places . Pharus-Plan, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-86514-206-1 , p. 247. Karl (Karl, Karol) Tausig on his 170th birthday . Short biography and description of the grave monument on the website of the "Foundation for Historical Churchyards and Cemeteries in Berlin-Brandenburg" (accessed on March 31, 2019).
↑ Neue Berliner Schachzeitung 1868, pp. 183-184; the following fragment of the game can also be found there

personal data
SURNAME	Tausig, Carl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Tausig, Karol; Tausig, Karl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Polish pianist, composer and music teacher
DATE OF BIRTH	November 4, 1841
PLACE OF BIRTH	Warsaw
DATE OF DEATH	July 14, 1871
Place of death	Leipzig

[1] Hans-Jürgen Mende : Lexicon of Berlin burial places . Pharus-Plan, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-86514-206-1 , p. 247. Karl (Karl, Karol) Tausig on his 170th birthday . Short biography and description of the grave monument on the website of the "Foundation for Historical Churchyards and Cemeteries in Berlin-Brandenburg" (accessed on March 31, 2019).

[2] Neue Berliner Schachzeitung 1868, pp. 183-184; the following fragment of the game can also be found there