Classical Music | Piano Music

Recorded on 11/12/2011, uploaded on 11/16/2011

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Two successive visits to Hungary during 1839-40 inspired the nineteen Hungarian Rhapsodies of Franz Liszt. The composer had been absent from his homeland for over a decade and the visits motivated him to immortalize his country and heritage in music. During these two visits, he transcribed melodies he heard performed by roaming gypsy bands. Liszt believed these to be authentic Hungarian folk music. However, most of them were actually the inventions of contemporary Hungarian composers whose fame had spread into the popular scene. Nevertheless, Liszt composed his Rhapsodies and published fifteen of them between 1851 and 1853. The remaining four followed decades later in 1882-86. Several became quite popular with audiences and later appeared in altered forms. Six of the Rhapsodies were arranged by Franz Doppler for orchestra while Liszt transcribed the same six, as well as three others, for piano duet. Two were arranged by the composer himself for violin, cello and piano.

Like many of Liszt’s composition, and some of the other Hungarian Rhapsodies as well, the ninth Rhapsody appeared in an earlier version before finding its final form and placement. Subtitled “Pesther Karneval” (“Carnival in Pest”), there are few differences between either versions of the Rhapsody. It begins with a pompous introductory motif, a foreshadowing of the ensuing tuneful first section, stated in octaves and rising out of the lower reaches of the keyboard. Capricious and playful, the first section introduces the melody over an accompaniment of rolled chords before proceeding to embellish it with florid ornamentation. A cadenza marks the close of the first section and leads into the second. Adopting an Allegretto tempo, it features a tuneful and energetic melody. Further accelerating into a Presto, the Rhapsody’s finale begins fortissimo with a melody inflected with tones from the minor key. The finale is expansive, spanning several different melodies. After its initial pompous start, it ventures briefly into the key of A-flat and then into a more lyrical melody in E major. It returns eventually to E-flat major and its grandiloquent manner only to be swept away again into F-sharp major. The final return to E-flat major is marked by a greatly ornamented return to the motif of the introduction from which the Rhapsody builds in restless energy as it carries on to a bombastic conclusion.       Joseph DuBose