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.
