Liszt’s Piano rhapsodies stand in the tradition of his transcriptions of operatic or song melodies yet employ folk dances and songs as their source material. Completed in 1864 Rhapsodie Espagnole is a late reminiscence of Liszt’s extended travels to Spain and Portugal in 1844 45. On the basis of two popular Iberian dance tunes Folia and Jota Liszt here sets off fireworks of representative rhythms and tone colours with a highly virtuosic presto finale. The long inaccessible autograph manuscript of the composition is now accessible once more an occasion for G. Henle Publishers to revise its Urtext edition.
