Karol Tausig was born in Warsaw on 4 November 1841 to Jewish parents and had his first lessons from his father Aloys Tausig, a pianist and composer who had studied with Thalberg. His father introduced him to Liszt at Weimar, where he studied for four years, becoming one of Liszt’s favourite pupils, travelling on his concert tours and taking counterpoint, composition and orchestration alongside piano. At sixteen he met Wagner and became a devoted friend. He debuted in Berlin in 1858 at a concert conducted by Hans von Bülow, toured German towns in 1859–60 from a base in Dresden, and moved to Vienna in 1862, where he put on concerts of modern orchestral music including his own symphonic poems — artistically mixed and financially a failure. He married the pianist Seraphine von Vrabely in 1864 and divorced her soon after, settled in Berlin in 1865, and died on 17 July 1871, aged twenty-nine, his health broken by touring.

He was Liszt’s outstanding pupil, and the critics divided over him: some admired the technical feats, others found his playing noisy and overbearing, and even sympathetic listeners expected him to improve with age — which by the end they agreed he had, calling his manner broad and dignified. He made piano arrangements of many Wagner operas, introduced Wagner to Peter Cornelius, and raised, single-handed, the money to build the Bayreuth theatre; he was also a friend of Brahms while remaining a staunch champion of the New Weimar School. In 1866 he opened the Schule des Höheren Klavierspiels in Berlin, known as the Virtuosenakademie, teaching Rafael Joseffy, Sophie Menter, Alexander Michałowski, Vera Timanoff and Amy Fay before his touring schedule forced it to close in October 1870. His Bach transcriptions and his Daily Studies are what survive of his own writing.

Sources:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Tausig
• https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q636941