Franz Liszt was involved in years of travel as a virtuoso pianist, enjoying the wildest adulation of audiences in a frenzied period that became known as Lisztomania. The appeal of his programmes included appropriate national tributes, and Liszt had recourse to varied musical sources as stimulus for these kinds of composition. From the lovely Canzone napolitana that uses a melody of unknown origin and the Hungarian Folk Songs that formed part of Liszts triumphant return to his native land, to a spectacular paraphrase of God Save the Queen that might have amused Queen Victoria, these rousing musical gifts are all evidence of a composer/ pianist at the height of his inventiveness.