Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2

ComposerF. Liszt
Notes6,760
Length8:45
Peak density29.6 notes per second, ranked 2 of 315
Average12.9 notes per second
Tempo100 bpm
RangeB0 to A7
Difficultytier 5 of 5, bigger chords and rapid shifting
In Klavieropaid
Piano roll of Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2: all 6,760 notes plotted over 8:45, right hand in cyan and left hand in magenta.
The actual chart. Time runs left to right across 8:45, pitch bottom to top, right hand cyan and left hand magenta.

You need a MIDI keyboard and Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Opera on a desktop or laptop. Not Safari, not iPad, because Apple does not support Web MIDI. Full requirements.

Two pieces wearing one title

6,760 notes over 8:45, second densest of the 315 charts at 29.6 notes per second. But the average is only 12.9, a spread of 2.3 times, and that gap is the most informative number on this page.

The rhapsody is in two halves. The lassan comes first: slow, declamatory, with long gaps between events. The friska follows and accelerates to the end. Almost all the density lives in the second half, which is why the peak sits so far above the average.

The piano roll shows it more clearly than any description does. The left side of the picture is sparse enough to see individual notes. The right side is a solid block. Same piece, same page of your screen.

What that means if you want to play it

You can play the lassan long before you can play the friska. That is not a compromise, that is how the piece is built, and it makes this a better piece to grow into than its number-two ranking suggests. Set a loop over the opening and it is approachable. Set one over the closing pages and it is one of the hardest things here.

At 8:45 it is the longest of the twelve pieces with their own page, and it covers B0 to A7. Stamina is a real part of it: the friska arrives when you have already been playing for several minutes.

Playing it here

Use Practice mode and the section loop rather than trying to run the whole 8:45. Play one hand while Klaviero plays the other through the octave passages. Rhythm mode scores the whole thing, and the grade is saved against the piece so you can watch it move.

If this one lands

Hungarian Rhapsody No. 12, Liszt7,349 notes · 8:42 · peak 26.7 n/s
Un Sospiro, Liszt4,144 notes · 4:08 · peak 31.4 n/s
La Campanella, Liszt4,064 notes · 4:21 · peak 28.0 n/s
Play Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 All 315 pieces