Hungarian Rhapsody No. 10

The Hungarian Rhapsody no. 10, published in 1853, is based on a composition by Béni Egressy. At that time, the Hungarian national composer directed one of the most famous so-called gypsy bands. When Liszt toured Hungary in the spring of 1846, Egressy wrote a piece to welcome him to Pest. Liszt expressed his gratitude by performing it there several times – albeit, as reported in the press, “in his very own way”. This was probably the start of Liszt's fundamental reworking from which the Hungarian Rhapsody no. 10 emerged over several intermediate stages, as always in the very finest “style hongrois”: A simple rhythmic motif becomes the starting point for a magnificent intensification with interspersed recitatives and cadenzas up to the highly virtuoso stringendo finale. For this Urtext edition, which takes into account the surviving autograph for the first time, it was again possible to recruit two outstanding Liszt specialists: Mária Eckhardt for the preface and Vincenzo Maltempo for the fingerings.