Sophie Menter she became professor of piano at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory but left in 1886 to continue concertizing. Because of her popularity, Menter succeeded with music that no other pianist would touch. This included Liszt's First Piano Concerto, which she played in Vienna in 1869, 12 years after its disastrous premiere there. One of her recital specialties was a piece entitled "Rhapsodies". This was a composite of three of Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsodies—Nos. 2, 6 and 12—along with fragments from several others. She also composed various pieces for piano, mainly in a brilliant style, yet referred to her own compositional talent as
Romanian Rhapsodies (Enescu) "Poème roumaine", Op. 1. The two Romanian Rhapsodies were composed in Paris, and premiered together in a concert at the Romanian Athenaeum in Bucharest which also included the world premiere of Enescu's First Suite for Orchestra, Op. 9 (1903). The composer conducted all three of his own works, which were preceded on the programme by Berlioz's Overture to "Les francs-juges" and Schumann's Symphony No. 1, both conducted by . The concert took place on 23 February 1903 (according to the Julian calendar in use in Romania at that time; 8 March 1903 Gregorian). The Second Rhapsody was played first, and