Bartók himself provided lengthy explanatory programme notes to his orchestral work "Kossuth", which is an example of the symphonic poem genre. Bartók explained its structure in terms of ten separate sections performed without interruption. The first is a portrait of Kossuth, the hero of the 1848 Hungarian uprising against the Habsburgs. The second movement portrays Kossuth’s spouse, who looks with worry at her husband’s troubled face. Then, the long repressed pain bursts from Kossuth’s chest: "the homeland is in danger!", and he looks back to Hungary’s glorious past. The fifth movement continues this thought, with a reminder of how things went wrong in the past. The fiery leader of the Hungarian people decides the time is ripe for action. The seventh section is prefaced by a quote from János Arany’s poem Toldi, regarded as one of the great masterpieces of Hungarian literature. The eighth section has no title, but is a musical evocation of battle. At the beginning we hear a distorted version of the Imperial Austrian anthem (now more familiar as the German National Anthem) – composed by Joseph Haydn of course. The Hungarians march to battle to the accompaniment of a Hungarian style melody. The 1848 revolution was ultimately defeated, and Bartók’s ninth section bears the title "End of it all." The final section is marked "Quiet, all quiet".

There is no denying that this is an exceptionally naive piece of program music. It was thrown together by a young man who at that time, could not free himself from the influence of tired journalistic clichés. Bartók, being the genius he was, soon embarked on his extraordinary journey of discovery, and eventually acquired an infinitely more mature and universal vision through his understanding of peasant music. The premiere of Kossuth was a great success in Budapest, and it was later performed n Manchester, England, conducted by János Richter. There, the work was politely received, but Bartók soon disowned it. With its mix of "coffee house" Gypsy elements and obvious imitation of Richard Strauss’ "modern" style, he deemed it was not worthy of an opus number. In recent years though, musicians have begun to recognise, despite its rawness, the intrinsic musical value of much of Kossuth.