Funérailles

[1] Funérailles has been recorded by pianists such as György Cziffra, Claudio Arrau, Vladimir Horowitz, Arthur Rubinstein, John Ogdon, Martha Argerich, Evgeny Kissin, Sviatoslav Richter, Arnaldo Cohen, Arcadi Volodos, Sergio Fiorentino, Awadagin Pratt and Krystian Zimerman.

The work was recorded on 19th century pianos by Andrea Bonatta, Claire Chevallier, Yves Henry, Ray Dudley, Pascal Mantin, Alexei Orlowetsky and Patrick Scheyder.

Its forlorn right-hand chords are offset by thundering, sforzando left-hand tremolos, which are interrupted and calmed into submission by the sudden call of battle trumpets, leading into the piece's next theme.

[2] In its second section, the piece presents a somber F-minor funeral march that modulates into a stunning lagrimoso A♭-major melody, relying heavily on augmented fifths to convey what can be viewed as a sort of dismal sense of hope.

Batthyány was executed on 6 October 1849 for his part in the uprising, Lichnowsky was beaten to death by an angry mob, and Teleki was forced to live in exile for more than ten years.