This post is for all of the pianists out there. These works are famous for how gnarly they are, technically. In them, pianists often discover how much bigger Liszt’s hands are than everyone else’s (save NBA stars and Sergei Rachmaninoff). I’ve put links to recordings of 2 and 13 below the fold. Here is what wikipedia has to say about the set of works:
Liszt incorporated many themes which he had heard in his native Hungary and which he believed to be folk music, though many were in fact tunes written by members of the Hungarian upper middle class, or by composers such as József Kossovits[1], often played by Roma (Gypsy) bands. The large scale structure of each was influenced by the verbunkos, a Hungarian dance in several parts, each with a different tempo. Within this structure, Liszt preserved the two main structural elements of typical Gypsy improvisation—the lassan (“slow”) and the friska (“fast”). At the same time, Liszt incorporates a number of effects unique to the sound of Gypsy bands, especially the pianistic equivalent of the cimbalom. He also makes much use of the Hungarian gypsy scale.[2]
- Hungarian Rhapsody No. 1
- Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2
- Hungarian Rhapsody No. 3
- Hungarian Rhapsody No. 4
- Hungarian Rhapsody No. 5
- Hungarian Rhapsody No. 6
- Hungarian Rhapsody No. 7
- Hungarian Rhapsody No. 8
- Hungarian Rhapsody No. 9
- Hungarian Rhapsody No. 10
- Hungarian Rhapsody No. 11
- Hungarian Rhapsody No. 12
- Hungarian Rhapsody No. 13
- Hungarian Rhapsody No. 14
- Hungarian Rhapsody No. 15
- Hungarian Rhapsody No. 16
- Hungarian Rhapsody No. 17
- Hungarian Rhapsody No. 18
- Hungarian Rhapsody No. 19