2 Hungarian Rhapsodies

No.1 in F minor

No.6 in D major (“Carnival in Pest”)

All of Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsodies - there are nineteen altogether, composed over a period of forty years - were written originally for piano. In fact, they are so fundamentally conceived for piano and so brilliantly scored for keyboard that, for all their success with the public and all their commercial potential, the composer himself was not very interested in presenting them in any other form. The fact that six of the most popular of them have become familiar items in the orchestral repertoire is due largely to the efforts of the Hungarian flautist, composer and conductor Franz Doppler, who impressed Liszt with his skill in translating the piano rhapsodies into orchestral terms. Although Liszt revised the six arrangements before they were published, it is not fair to claim, as one of his pupils has done, that “Doppler has nothing to do with them” and that his name appeared on the title page only as kind gesture on the composer’s part. In fact, Liszt made a special provision that “the name Doppler should not be omitted from the title page, for he has done the work marvellously.”

For Liszt, as for Brahms and most of their contemporaries, Hungarian music was gypsy music - which, as Béla Bartók was to demonstrate a generation or so later, it wasn’t. In fact, much of the material Liszt noted down in the 1840s for use in his own compositions wasn’t even gypsy music but gypsy improvisations on songs and dances by amateur composers of the day. But the point is that he firmly believed it was true Hungarian music and it is that conviction that gives his Hungarian Rhapsodies their nationalistic fervour, their rhythmic swagger and much of their harmonic and instrumental colouring. Their form too derives from a Hungarian-gypsy source, the csárdás with its slow introduction (lassan) and its quick main section (friska) - although Liszt always elaborates on that basic two-part structure, often at some length.

The slow introduction to the Hungarian Rhapsody in F minor (No.1 in the Doppler set, No.14 in the piano series, known also as the Hungarian Fantasy in a version for piano and orchestra) is a sombre funeral march with a dragging tread in the bass and a solemn melody intoned by clarinet and bassoons. That melody, with its strong Hungarian rhythmic accents, is taken up as the first theme of the quick section in a contrastingly heroic treatment in the major. Although it is displaced by a capricious scherzo and a vivacious gypsy dance, it is briefly recalled in reflective solos on flute and clarinet and eventually returns in full force on heavy fortissimo brass supported by swirling strings. That, however, is the last that is heard of such serious material. Harp arpeggios evoking the gypsy cimbalom and fiery cadenzas on violins and violas lead into an increasingly energetic and ever faster closing episode based on a new, irrepressibly lively tune in F major.

Of all the Hungarian Rhapsodies, No.6 in D major (No.9 in E flat major in the piano series) is one of the least likely candidates for the “Carnival in Pest” title Liszt apparently attached to it - unless, that is, the city of Pest was known for its lack of interest in what was known at the time as Hungarian national music. While it is true that there are Hungarian gypsy features here and there, some of the tunes and their treatment seem alien to that idiom. The theme heard on lower strings at the beginning is not uncharacteristic of the material Liszt liked to use in his slow introductions but when, after an expressive intervention on woodwind, it is taken up by trumpet to the marching accompaniment of plucked strings it sounds as though it belongs to some Italian opera. The cheerful first theme of the quicker section might have hopped over the border from Czechoslovakia and towards the end, just before the trumpet march returns in its operatic splendour, there is a vigorously heavy-footed Russian dance. Effectively offset by a lyrical episode based on the expressive woodwind material from the introduction, Liszt’s celebration of popular dance tunes is no less a carnival for not having much to do with the city of Pest.