Musical Madness! Alkan, Liszt, Brahms, and Balakirev's hardest + End of Round 2!

[liszt-and-the-galops]

Link to the form for voting: https://forms.gle/XrVb3vmhJJps7WcP7

Pieces in the matches:
Alkan - Op. 39 no. 12 Le Festin d'Ésope
Brahms - Variations on a Theme of Paganini (Book I)

Liszt - S. 420 La Clochette
Liszt - S. 252 Rondeau Fantastique "El Contrabandista"

Liszt - Etudes d'Exécution Transcendante d'Après Paganini no. 4b
Chopin - Op. 10 no. 1 "Waterfall"

Balakirev - Islamey
Alkan - Op. 39 no. 10 Concerto mvt. 3


Current bracket: https://challonge.com/musicalmadness2025
Winners of the last matchups: Feux Follets (WTAF!?!?!?), Petrushka, Ballade no. 4, Spanish Rhapsody
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
Results will be added in a few hours. Check the bracket for the vote counts!

This thread also doubles as the official discussion thread for these four matches and the results of the previous four.
P.S. Replaced recording for Alkan Concerto mvt. 3 with a better one (Hamelin → Gibbons) because there were some complaints that it didn't sound poorly (whoever it was that posted that on pianostreet: you were not alone lol).
Voting closes at 5:00 PM on March 24th, 2025 (US Eastern time).

[gasplamey]

I absolutely refuse to believe that Le Preux lost.
I mean, look at this!!!

And that's just one part!


*** Feux Follets you *** piece of ****, why do you have to do this. I hope that willowisp or whatever it *** was burns in **** for knocking out *** Le Preux. *** ***.

[liszt-and-the-galops]

*** Feux Follets you *** piece of ****, why do you have to do this. I hope that willowisp or whatever it *** was burns in **** for knocking out *** Le Preux. *** ***.[/font]

Someone's angry, lol.

I mean, look at this!!!

And that's just one part!

Well, Petrushka mvt. 3 only lost to S. 139 Feux Follets by one vote last year, so I have to imagine that the full Petrushka (which is IMO a fair bit harder than Le Preux) will knock out the S. 137 Feux Follets.
Or not. You never know.
Admittedly I am a bit scared that Feux Follets is just going to steamroll the entire bracket until it reaches either Paganini Variations Book 1, El Contrabandista, or S. 140 no. 4b in the semifinals.
Spoilers below...













It's entirely possible that El Contrabandista won't even last long enough to see Feux Follets. La Clochette is currently up by a few votes. If L.C. does get past R.F./E.C. I definitely don't see it beating Feux Follets. In such a scenario it's entirely possible Feux Follets makes it to the finals and wins in a matchup against Wilde Jagd or Lavapies.
Hell, just about anything is possible. LE FESTIN D'ESOPE IS BEATING PAGANINI VARIATIONS BY ONE VOTE RIGHT NOW, AND ISLAMEY ISN'T FAR BEHIND ALKAN CONCERTO MVT. 3.
Okay, I'm done venting about how absurd these four matches are going right now. At least S. 140 no. 4b is winning by a landslide currently...