Saint-Saens - Danse Macabre, Horowitz or Liszt version?

[stevie]

i adore this awesome piece, and i really like both of these transcriptions of it, which leaves me in a predicament, which to learn?

or should i perhaps create my own hybrid combination of the best parts of each?

[moose_opus_28]

Igor Lovchinsky did his own version of it in a competition I was in with him.  He played it wonderfully, and it won him the competition.  Some people were upset about it, since another person or two were more mature...but his Russian flair for that piece won it, like it or not.  If you think your ideas or combination of ideas works better, do it.  It can obviously be effective.