Two standards of the Romantic repertoire for piano and orchestra are available here for the first time in a single volume: Liszt's symphonic poem Totentanz (Dance of Death) and his Fantasy on Hungarian Folk Tunes, a work of the same lyric grace and vital rhythms as his famous Hungarian Rhapsodies.
The Romantic composers were fascinated by death, and the Totentanz is Liszt's masterpiece of the macabre. Based on the familiar "Dies irae" plain chant melody from the Requiem Mass, it consists of six diabolical variations that demand a virtuoso performance from the piano and orchestra.
Like most of the nationalistic music of its era, the Fantasy on Hungarian Folk Tunes was not derived directly from the native melodies but written in their spirit. Hungarian songs, Liszt wrote, "became the blood of my soul — an admirable and magnificent kaleidoscope: sadness, sorrow, suffering, depth of spirit, pathos, gracefulness, reverie, gravity."
Reproduced from authoritative editions, both of these scores are essential for study and performance by pianists and conductors.