Fantasy sur l'opéra hongroise Szép Ilonka, S.417
Romantic Fantasia Piano solo ~9 min
In brief

This fantasy has a dramatic, colorful character typical of the Romantic era, alternating virtuosic display and singing, operatic-inspired episodes with sharp contrasts of intensity that require continuous musical storytelling. Technically, you will need to manage Tempo rubato (3.1/5) by shaping small local delays and accelerations supported by arm and forearm control rather than percussive attacks, and to control the Sustain Pedal (3.1/5) to keep inner voices clear and avoid a blurred sonority, which calls for quick changes and delicate half-pedaling. The piece belongs to Liszt's Romantic output as a concert fantasy drawing on Hungarian operatic themes to create piano writing with orchestral color and showmanship.

MusicCoach difficulty
88/100
Master repertoire
Likely range : 76–100/100
Confidence : 42% · to confirm
BeginnerIntermediateAdvancedVirtuoso
Exam grade
Beyond grade 8

The grade scale stops at 8; this work belongs to concert or diploma repertoire.

Difficulty estimate by MusicCoach on a scale of 1 to 100.

Where this work sits
050100

Most works cluster between 45 and 65: a small score gap often marks a real step. The highlighted bar shows this work among those for the same instrument.

The MusicCoach difficulty measures a work's overall demands (technique, reading, stamina) on a shared 0-100 scale, consolidated from editorial and pedagogical reference points (Henle, exam syllabuses, curation) and our own analyses. It measures neither musical value nor the practice time YOU will need: two musicians of the same level can experience the same work very differently depending on their strengths (hands used to octaves, quick sight-reading…). The confidence reflects how many reference points sit behind the score and how well they agree — a lightly documented score is flagged “to validate”. For a truly personal bearing, the diagnostic and your space compare each work to YOUR estimated level, which the score alone cannot do.

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Relative difficulty
86%
Among Franz Liszt
97%
Era Romantic
96%
Genre
Estimated skills
Pedaling
Sustain pedal
1
Style
Romantic style
1
Rhythm
Tempo rubato
1
Interpretation
Dynamics
1
Ornaments
Romantic ornaments
1
Interpretation
Phrasing
1
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