Musical Madness 2025: Pieces list, website, and nomination round!

[liszt-and-the-galops]

Musical Madness is back for 2025! For those who missed the first tournament and/or need a refresher, here's a brief rundown of how all of this works. There's a pretty in-depth explanation in the "How it all works" page, but here are the essentials:

• Nomination round: people suggest pieces not already in the list to join the tournament (I make the substitutions to keep the total at 64).
• After 1 week, nomination round ends and bracket contest begins: I reveal what the bracket is, and people submit their predictions for what the bracket will end up looking like. (The bracket is already up on challonge with the current list, if you like to try to spoil yourself )
• The bracket contest lasts another week. After that, voting starts. In each matchup, people vote for which piano piece they think is more difficult. The piece with the most votes after two days wins the match and moves on to the next round.
• Matches are posted four at a time. Since the tournament is based on March Madness (the annual US college basketball tournament), the bracket is single-elimination.

We begin with the nomination round, which will run until 5:00 PM on Saturday, Feb 15th (US Eastern time).
There are a few restrictions that all pieces must follow:

• You must submit a performance of the piece, in addition to the name and composer of the piece. If possible, avoid MIDI recordings.
• The performance of the piece must be under fifteen minutes in length when not sped up (I am open to minor exceptions, and maybe outright increasing the time limit).
• The piece must have been WRITTEN before 1925; if a piece was undeniably written before then, but only unearthed at a later date (e.g. Godowsky Study no. 50, the Chopin piece unearthed last year), then it is perfectly fine to submit.
• All pieces must have at least 100 results if you search for them on pianostreet ("common repertoire"). I will be very lenient on search parameters (e.g. "O.C." for Sorabji - Opus Clavicembalisticum).
• Pieces must be played entirely by the piano. Orchestral works (e.g. Liszt Concerto no. 1, Beethoven Op. 12 no. 3, etc.) are not allowed.
• Pieces may not be exceedingly difficult; use Brahms - Paganini Variations as a rough upper limit.

Current list of pieces (user submissions will be bolded):

Chopin - Op. 25 no. 11 "Winter Wind", Hayato Sumino
Chopin - Op. 10 no. 1 "Waterfall", Seong-Jin Cho
Liszt - S. 140 no. 3 "La Campanella", Sung Chang
Rachmaninoff - Op. 39 no. 6 "Little Red Riding Hood", Valentina Lisitsa
Liszt - S. 252 Rondeau Fantastique "El Contrabandista", Valentina Lisitsa
Liszt - S. 514 Mephisto Waltz no. 1, Sung Chang
Chopin - Op. 22 Andante Spianato & Grande Polonaise Brilliante, Evgeny Kissin
Liszt - S. 144 no. 3 "Un Sospiro", Marc-Andre Hamelin
Chopin - Op. 38 Ballade no. 2, Krystian Zimerman
Chopin - Op. 10 no. 4 "Torrent", Bruce Liu
Stravinsky/Agosti - The Firebird, Piemontesi
Chopin - Op. 52 Ballade no. 4, Seong-Jin Cho
Liszt - Hungarian Rhapsody no. 2, Marc-Andre Hamelin
Scriabin - Op. 53 Sonata no. 5, Sviatoslav Richter
Liszt - S. 219 Grand Galop Chromatique, Gyorgy Cziffra
Schubert/Liszt - Erlkönig, Yuja Wang
Chopin - Op. 25 no. 6 "Double Thirds", Peter Shannon
Chopin - Op. 10 no. 2 "Chromatic", Dmitry Shishkin
Ravel - La Valse, Sung Chang
Mozart - K. 576 Piano Sonata no. 18, Daniel Barenboim
Scriabin - Op. 42 no. 5, Daniil Trifonov
Liszt - S. 145 no. 2 "Gnomenreigen", Gyorgy Cziffra
Liszt - S. 254 Spanish Rhapsody, Sung Chang
Saint-Saens - Op. 111 no. 6 Toccata, François-René Duchâble
Beethoven - Op. 106 Sonata no. 29 "Hammerklavier" mvt. 4, Valentina Lisitsa
Chopin - Op. 58 Piano Sonata no. 3 mvt. 4, Sung Chang
Ravel - Gaspard de la Nuit III: Scarbo, Sung Chang
Liszt - S. 140 no. 4 "Arpeggio", Sung Chang
Alkan - Op. 35 no. 5 "Allegro Barbaro", Jack Gibbons
Alkan - Op. 39 no. 12 "Le Festin d'Esope", Jack Gibbons
Liszt - Hungarian Rhapsody no. 10, Marc-Andre Hamelin
Liszt - S. 137 no. 8 "Wilde Jagd", MIDI Recording
Chopin - Op. 23 Ballade no. 1, Arsenii Mun
Balakirev - Op. 18 Islamey, Kristina Miller
Alkan - Op. 17 Le Preux, Yi-Chung Huang
Alkan - Op. 39 no. 10 Concerto for Solo Piano, mvt. 3, Marc-Andre Hamelin
Debussy - Preludes, Book 2: Feux d'Artifice, Sung Chang
Rachmaninoff - Op. 16 Moment Musicaux no. 6, Nikolai Lugansky
Prokofiev - Op. 11 Toccata, Martha Argerich
Liszt - S. 420 La Clochette, Sergio Fiorentino
Liszt - S. 140 no. 6 "Theme and Variations", Elisa Tomellini
Chopin/Brahms - Study on Chopin's Op. 25 no. 2, Idil Biret
Alkan - Op. 39 no. 1 "Comme le Vent", Vincenzo Maltempo
R. Schumann - Op. 7 Toccata, Do-Hyun Kim
Liszt - S. 140 no. 4b, Yi-Chung Huang
Liszt - S. 138 Mazeppa, Janice Weber
Scarlatti - K. 141 Sonata, HJ Lim
Rachmaninoff - Prelude op. 23 no. 9, HDA Pianomusic
Chopin/Godowsky - Studies on Chopin's Etudes no. 4 "Ignis Fatuus", SLDD Piano
Ravel - Gaspard de la Nuit I: Ondine, Martha Argerich
Chopin/Godowsky - Studies on Chopin's Etudes no. 36 "Double Thirds", Nicolas Namoradze
Godowsky - Studies on Chopin's Etudes no. 50 "Triple Etude", MIDI Recording
Liszt - S. 137 no. 5 "Feux Follets", Nauges
Albeniz - Iberia, no. 9 (Book 3) "Lavapies", Alicia de Larrocha
Liszt - S. 137 no. 12 "Chasse-Neige", Nauges
Godowsky - Studies on Chopin's Etudes no. 47 "Badinage", Susanne Anatchkova
Scriabin - Op. 66 Sonata no. 8, Elina Akselrud
Liszt - S. 137 no. 2 "Fusees", MIDI Recording
Alkan - Op. 76 no. 3, Vincenzo Maltempo
Faure - Op. 19 Ballade, Ayaka Watanabe
Debussy - Etude no. 12 "Pour les Accords", Christina McMaster
Czerny - Sonata no. 10 Op. 268 mvt. 4, Martin Jones
Stravinsky - Trois mouvements de Petrushka, Sung Chang
Brahms - Paganini Variations, Book I, Gyorgy Cziffra

Key: Composer - piece name, pianist.
Note: I am currently testing ways of making the list more legible without taking up an absurd amount of space.
Alternate performance suggestions are also welcome for pieces that are already on the list (e.g. "Jack Gibbons performance of Alkan op. 39 no. 10 instead of Hamelin")

Also, I've made a website for Musical Madness! Link to the homepage is in my signature, and a few links will be posted here.
Homepage: https://sites.google.com/view/musicalmadness-ps/home
How it all works: https://sites.google.com/view/musicalmadness-ps/how-it-all-works
2025 pieces list: https://sites.google.com/view/musicalmadness-ps/tournaments/2025/pieces-list
2025 schedule: https://sites.google.com/view/musicalmadness-ps/schedule-for-2025
And last but not least, link to the current playlist for MM25: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLC1UP-qEr3ZejPioXOWW8OAdGxn4lSKPE

[lelle]

Wow awesome mate this is really ambitious!

Maybe you could add something about what the tournament is about in your original post? I saw that I could learn more by clicking the links but just by reading the post I do not understand what the tournament is about. I think that would help hooking people into this! I will definitely participate.

[dizzyfingers]

Wow awesome mate this is really ambitious!

Maybe you could add something about what the tournament is about in your original post? I saw that I could learn more by clicking the links but just by reading the post I do not understand what the tournament is about. I think that would help hooking people into this! I will definitely participate.

My impression is it's for people who spend time listening to the core romantic cannon, who have built up a list of their favorite pieces and their favorite pianists playing them - a listener's share fest. 

I'm either practicing, or watching tutorials and music history vloggers, or listening to music I've never heard, which tends to be from after 1925, so I'll pass.

[liszt-and-the-galops]

Woops! Forgot to include what the tournament even is. XD

There's a pretty in-depth explanation in the "How it all works" page, but here are the essentials:

• Nomination round: people suggest pieces not already in the list to join the tournament (I make the substitutions to keep the total at 64).
• After 1 week, nomination round ends and bracket contest begins: I reveal what the bracket is, and people submit their predictions for what the bracket will end up looking like. (The bracket is already up on challonge with the current list, if you like to try to spoil yourself )
• The bracket contest lasts another week. After that, voting starts. In each matchup, people vote for which piano piece they think is more difficult. The piece with the most votes after two days wins the match and moves on to the next round.
• Matches are posted four at a time. Since the tournament is based on March Madness (the annual US college basketball tournament), the bracket is single-elimination.

I hope this helps!

[thorn]

I feel like the Stravinsky/Agosti Firebird should be here- even though it's 1928 (the original was 1910) and I only counted 90-5 search results. It's every bit as wonderful (and demanding) as Petrushka.

The best recording in my book, Francesco Piemontesi

[liszt-and-the-galops]

I feel like the Stravinsky/Agosti Firebird should be here- even though it's 1928 (the original was 1910) and I only counted 90-5 search results. It's every bit as wonderful (and demanding) as Petrushka.

The best recording in my book, Francesco Piemontesi

Funny you should post this...
I'd heard in the past that Stravinsky's Firebird was his most difficult piece, but always assumed it was exclusively for orchestra, like Rite of Spring.
Then, a few minutes after making the OP, I remembered that fact and decided to search "Stravinsky Firebird piano transcription" for fun, and came across that exact recording. XD

In terms of including it, I'll add it in after this post. The fact that it was published a few years after the deadline is fine, considering that I went with the publication of the play for Petrushka (1910), even though the piece was written in 1946 (IIRC). Searching "firebird" on PS also gives 106 results on my end, so I'll go ahead and substitute it with Scriabin 8/12.

Edit: Updated! Thanks again for the suggestion.
Also, I was wrong about RoS being exclusively for orchestra:

[transitional]

Also, I was wrong about RoS being exclusively for orchestra:

I assume the Rite of Spring transcription is a relatively obscure transcription, and there are piano transcriptions on IMSLP for most famous pieces, even if they don't work particularly well for piano. I might do Schubert's String Quintet at some point just because I love it so much.