Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2

Liszt wrote nineteen Hungarian Rhapsodies; this is the one everybody knows, even people who have never heard the name. It follows the old verbunkos shape — a slow, heavy lassan that broods for minutes, then a friska that accelerates until the pianist is barely hanging on.

Its second life is as cartoon music. Tom and Jerry built an entire Oscar-winning short around it, and so did Bugs Bunny, which means a lot of people recognise the melody before they ever learn whose it is.

Valentina Lisitsa is worth knowing about too: a Ukrainian pianist who built her audience by posting performances to YouTube long before that was a normal way to have a career, and ended up filling the Albert Hall on the strength of it.