Musical Madness 2025! The defending champion's first match!

[liszt-and-the-galops]

Link to the form for voting: https://forms.gle/ijZ6k29eEyAAYJK37

Pieces in the matches:
Liszt - S. 219 Grand Galop Chromatique (defending champion)
Debussy - Feux d’Artifice

Liszt - S. 138 Mazeppa (1840 version)
Liszt - S. 137 no. 12 “Chasse-Neige” (1837 version)

Liszt - Hungarian Rhapsody no. 10
Chopin/Godowsky - Study no. 4 “Ignis Fatuus”

Debussy - Etude no. 12 “Pour les Accords”
Chopin/Godowsky - Study no. 36 “Double Thirds”


Current bracket: https://challonge.com/musicalmadness2025
Winners of the last matchups: Comme le Vent, Wilde Jagd, The Firebird, & Czerny’s op. 268 Sonata (mvt. 4).
Results page on MM website: https://sites.google.com/view/musicalmadness-ps/voting-results
Matches/results spreadsheet: https://1drv.ms/x/c/373bca7cb13fd958/ERCeNi1RJdVCuYiYk2KhQlkBEpSOnfoDFbYla3MknPz-vA?e=oxosxa&nav=MTVfezAwMDAwMDAwLTAwMDEtMDAwMC0wMDAwLTAwMDAwMDAwMDAwMH0

This thread also doubles as the official discussion thread for these four matches.
Voting closes at 5:00 PM on March 2nd, 2025 (US Eastern time).

[transitional]

I don't see any slow piece winning against Mazeppa, even though I voted against it. GGC is a simple but really tricky piece and Feux d'Artifice is pretty tame in comparison (even though it's the hardest Debussy prelude). NGL the Galop it sounds quite a bit easier at Lang Lang tempo.

[liszt-and-the-galops]

I don't see any slow piece winning against Mazeppa, even though I voted against it.

Chasse-Neige isn't exactly very slow, though it has slow sections.
It's also (currently) winning.

NGL the Galop it sounds quite a bit easier at Lang Lang tempo.

Just listened to Lang Lang's version of it, and I have to say that it's lost a lot of it's magic compared to Cziffra's performances.
No kidding about it being easier than Cziffra's version; LL plays it nearly 33% slower. Especially relevant because the majority of the Galop's difficulty comes from its speed. It's like comparing a five-and-a-half minute Le Preux to an eight minute one.

Edit: Nothing against LL, by the way. That particular performance just failed miserably to get to the same level as the single best pianist of the 20th Century. It's less "Lang Lang is subpar" and more "Cziffra was practically a god," not to mention it was Cziffra's signature piece.

Edit2: Of course, the second I check the form again, Mazeppa has retaken the lead.
If you couldn't tell, that matchup is close as heck lol.

[thorn]

Feux d'artifice isn't too bad. Most of his etudes are harder, I mean 6 and 7 are extended/concentrated forms of some FdA techniques.

The last bracket was a hard one for me. I went with the Double Thirds because I wouldn't personally fancy trying it, whereas I've dabbled with Pour les Accords. However, I can't imagine someone who mastered the original Chopin 25/6 having too much trouble with the Godowsky- they might find the 'modernness' of the Debussy more frightening.

Also off topic but on a previous thread we were talking about ballet transcriptions and this great performance of the Tchaik/Pletnev Sleeping Beauty by Trifanov popped up in my YT suggestions if you haven't heard it! (I wish Pletnev had arranged the Swan Lake op.20a suite, I'm not that fussed about Nutcracker- there's beautiful music in it but the popularity has killed it for me)

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