NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Alan Gilbert

Franz Liszt was certainly no musician 'for quiet citizens and comfortable sleepers' (Heinrich Heine) – and this is both musically and politically understandable! The polyglot virtuoso was not only a master of rapid musical outbursts, but also a declared European with social ideals. When the Hungarian independence movements of 1849 were brutally crushed by the Austrians, Liszt responded with the composition 'Hungarian Rhapsodies'. Inspired by the folklore of his homeland, he wrote a deliberately 'free' music of almost explosive power – particularly evident in the orchestral arrangement.