Sándor Petöfi actually Alexander Petrovics, born on 1 January 1823 in Kiskörös, died on 31 July 1849 near Sighisoara (Romania), was a Hungarian poet and folk hero of the Hungarian struggle for freedom in 1848.
His first poem was published in 1842, and two years later, after finding a position as assistant editor in Pest, he published his first collection of poems (1844). From the very beginning, he called for an independent Hungarian national state in his works.
On 8 September 1847 he married Júlia Szendrey. One year later he became the leader of the "Pest Youth" and one of the spiritual leaders of the March Revolution.
On 15 October 1848 Petöfi became captain of the Honvédbatallion in Deprecen. After a dispute with his superior, he served from 1849 as adjudant under the legendary Polish general József Bem in the Hungarian fight for freedom against the Habsburgs. He has been missing since the Battle of Sighisoara on 31 July 1849. He probably fell on the battlefield, as he had predicted in many of his poems. There is, however, also the theory that he was deported to a labour camp in Siberia by the Russians, who were trying to suppress the fight for freedom on the side of the Habsburgs. This theory is highly controversial among Hungarian scientists.
Apart from his works, such as his poems, the 1848 national song, the poem Held Janos, and the ballad Des toten Dichters Liebe (The Dead Poet's Love), which was posthumously written about him by his friend Mór Jókai, and which was later set to music by Franz Liszt, also recall Petöfi today.
Furthermore the street bridge in Budapest (Petöfi híd), named after him. In 1956 a discussion group of young writers in the Hungarian Labourers' Party was named after him. The Petöfi Circle was one of the pioneers of the Hungarian National Uprising.
New, revised version with score, in which great importance was attached to transparent instrumentation without denying the original character. Fantastic overture with fiery Hungarian character. Named after the Hungarian national hero Sandor Petöfi.
