Late works of Franz Liszt to Saint-Saëns. The three czárdás that Liszt wrote—titled "Czárdás", "Czárdás obstinée" and "Czárdás macabre"—are less freely treated than the Hungarian Rhapsodies and remain more specifically Hungarian than gypsy in thematic material. Their spare lines, angular rhythms and advanced harmonies show these pieces to be direct ancestors of Bartók's work. Because of these attributes, the czárdás are considered by Liszt scholars among the more interesting of the composer's late output. The same, some critics argue, cannot be said as uniformly about his Hungarian Rhapsodies 16-19, composed after he had neglected the genre 30 years. Of these four late rhapsodies, only the
Rhapsodies for Orchestra about the words "rhapsody" and "rhapsodic"—words I would never have chosen to describe my music—the more I realized that boundaries are meant to be pushed, and that an external, even foreign stimulus like 'rhapsodic' could be just the ticket to push mine." Stucky further described the composition in the score program notes, writing: Reviewing the December 2011 Chicago premiere, music critic John von Rhein praised "Rhapsodies for Orchestra", writing, "In a series of interlocking episodes, the solo flute, English horn, horn and trumpet found themselves echoed and mimicked by other instruments and groups. Swirls of orchestral color were infused with