This brilliant and fiery piece, composed in 1883, was performed all over Europe and America in its first few years and received a rapturous reception wherever it appeared, frequently being singled out by the critics as the most entertaining work on the programme. It has remained a firm favourite on the concert platform ever since.

sources

A  Autograph score (1883), in the Czech Museum of Music, Prague. As so often, A is not the final, definitive text; many details (e.g. the initial tempo marking, which in A is Presto) were revised later

E  First edition score, published by Bote & Bock, Berlin in 1884 (Pl. No.12893)

P  First edition parts, published by Bote & Bock (Pl. No.12894)

EE  Miniature score, published by Eulenburg; this score was taken from E, the rehearsal letters were replaced by bar numbers, and some new errors crept in

Ua  Urtext edition, published by Artia, Prague1 in 1955

E and P have rehearsal letters which are (annoyingly) removed in both EE and Ua in favour of bar numbers. These, however, differ: the numbering is technically correct in EE, but for the convenience of conductors that in Ua, which (according to its normal practice) counts through the 1st-time bars 455–70 (i.e. the 2nd-time bar is 471), is here retained. Hence EE 455II–871 = Ua 471–887.