MÁV Symphony Orchestra

Franz Liszt and Frédéric Chopin moved to Paris about the same time and they became good friends. Chopin composed the Andante Spianato et Grand Polonaise around this time, between 1830 and 1834. The first part is a piano solo, which is later accompanied by the orchestra in the form of a polonaise, reminiscent of the Polish national dance of the composer’s homeland. Liszt was writing his third piano concerto for more than twenty years from 1838; he didn’t call it a piano concerto, but gave it the title ‘Dance of the Dead: Paraphrase on Dies irae’. The piece debuted in 1865, not much later than the time of composing the Hungarian Coronation Mass for the coronation ceremony of the emperor Francis Joseph I and empress Elizabeth. Besides the traditional musical devices of the Catholic mass, there are numerous Hungarian motives in this piece.