Which of the 15 versions of "La Campanella" is your favorite? (yes, there's 15)

[liszt-and-the-galops]

Did you know that there are at least 18 different versions of Paganini's "La Campanella?" I've put links to 15 of them below (the ones that there are any recordings of). Which ones are your favorites? Are any of them particularly interesting to you?

Liszt - S. 141 no. 3 (Paganini Études) (the popular one), played by Gyorgy Cziffra

Liszt - S. 140 no. 3 (Études d'Exécution Transcendante d'Après Paganini), played by Sung Chang

Liszt - S. 420 Grande Fantasie de Bravoure sur La Clochette, played by Sergio Fiorentino

Liszt - S. 700a/i and S. 700a/ii, played by Leslie Howard (I think they're below tempo but not 100% sure on that; these are the only actual recordings of these that exist)

Czerny - Variations Brillantes sur La Campanella (Piano four hands), played by "PianoCurio" on Youtube (this was the video that led to me finding most of these)

Czerny - Op. 609 Aires Populaire en Rondeaux No. 18 "La Clochette de Paganini", pianist seemingly unknown

Kuhlau - Op. 121 La Clochette, played by Azusa Saito

Herz - Op. 63 March and Rondo on Paganini's "Clochette", played by Kim Jun-Hee (Deepl might have translated that incorrectly...)

Hummel - S. 190 Fantasie no. 4 (I couldn't find a concrete source on what the actual name of this piece is, lol), played by Madoka Inui

Liszt/Busoni - La Campanella, played by Sung Chang

Hamelin - Étude No. 3 in B minor "d'Après Paganini-Liszt", played by Andrey Dubov

Carulli - Fantasie sur le Motif de Paganini Intitulé La Clochette (for solo guitar), played by Drew Henderson

Strauss Sr. - Op. 11 Walzer à la Paganini (for orchestra)

And of course, Paganini - Violin Concerto no. 2 mvt. 3 Rondo a La Clochette

I was planning to make this topic a few months ago (just between Liszt's five versions, Busoni's version of Liszt's, and Paganini's), but PianoCurio's video on Czerny's Op. 170 sent me down a rabbit hole of finding these things, and this is the list that I'm happy with as of right now. I'll inevitably find more of them later, but this is good enough.

Edit: added Marc-Andre Hamelin's Etude on La Campanella, which I'd somehow completely forgotten lmao.

[frodo10]

It's going to take me a while to go thru all of these.  Are we allowed to pick as many as we want?  Looks like 1 person voted so far and picked 4.  I'll definitely vote after I hear all these.  I did listen to the Carulli.  I won't pick this but the guitarist is very good and gets nice sound out of his 7 string guitar - fine acoustics and recording equipment.

[liszt-and-the-galops]

It's going to take me a while to go thru all of these.  Are we allowed to pick as many as we want?  Looks like 1 person voted so far and picked 4.  I'll definitely vote after I hear all these.  I did listen to the Carulli.  I won't pick this but the guitarist is very good and gets nice sound out of his 7 string guitar - fine acoustics and recording equipment.

I set it to four because there were four that I wanted to vote for, which was admittedly pretty dumb lol. I'll change it to "up to 14" (the number of options) so people can pick as many as they want.

Edit: sh________t I can't edit the number of allowed responses. Not cool, PS.
Edit2: and now I can't even undo my vote? WTF?

[frodo10]

I set it to four because there were four that I wanted to vote for, which was admittedly pretty dumb lol. I'll change it to "up to 14" (the number of options) so people can pick as many as they want.

Edit: sh________t I can't edit the number of allowed responses.

You know, I was actually going to say keep it at 4.  This works great for me to!

Edit: I think 14 is way too much.  Everyone SB able to pick top 4.

[liszt-and-the-galops]

Edit: I think 14 is way too much.  Everyone SB able to pick top 4.

I was thinking that that would allow people to pick as many or few as they wanted to, but I guess that's out the window because of how editing polls on PS work.

[frodo10]

Edit: sh________t I can't edit the number of allowed responses. Not cool, PS.
Edit2: and now I can't even undo my vote? WTF?

First item - see prior my prior post.
2nd item:   Hopefully you were just testing this and not wanting to actually change your vote.  Everyone: chose carefully before you vote and double check before casting the vote.  Think presidential elections.

[liszt-and-the-galops]

2nd item:   Hopefully you were just testing this and not wanting to actually change your vote.  Everyone: chose carefully before you vote and double check before casting the vote.  Think [head-of-state] elections.

I was trying to re-vote to see if it would work, but it very much did not work lol. My choices (Liszt S. 420, S. 140, Czerny Op. 170, Hummel S. 190) are correct.

[rachmaninoff_forever]

They should abolish all La Campanellas 

Pannini or however you spell his name’s spirit is probably like ‘stop conjuring me up all the damn time and play something else’

[liszt-and-the-galops]

They should abolish all La Campanellas 

Pannini or however you spell his name’s spirit is probably like ‘stop conjuring me up all the damn time and play something else’

If you were talking about S. 141, then I'd agree. It's really not that good and gets overplayed like crazy (plus, non-pianists seem to think it's the hardest thing ever for some reason).

Liszt's earlier versions (especially S. 140 and La Clochette), on the other hand, are really good and not played nearly enough. Czerny's four hands version is also downright incredible.

[rachmaninoff_forever]

If you were talking about S. 141, then I'd agree. It's really not that good and gets overplayed like crazy (plus, non-pianists seem to think it's the hardest thing ever for some reason).

Liszt's earlier versions (especially S. 140 and La Clochette), on the other hand, are really good and not played nearly enough. Czerny's four hands version is also downright incredible.

I’m talking ALL of them we don’t need any more variations of the same melody.  It’s like the take 5 of classical music

If I’m judging at a comp and I see La and a Cam afterwards I’m immediately not picking him idc how good he is

[liszt-and-the-galops]

I’m talking ALL of them we don’t need any more variations of the same melody.  It’s like the take 5 of classical music

If I’m judging at a comp and I see La and a Cam afterwards I’m immediately not picking him idc how good he is

I suppose that you'll do the same any time that someone plays one of the many versions of Paganini's Caprice no. 24 (e.g. Liszt S. 140/141 no. 6, Brahms Paganini Variations, Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Lutoslawski Variations on a Theme of Paganini, etc.)?

Also, what about the various La Clochettes (which there are more of than "La Campanellas" and they generally stay closer to the original piece)? Among them is Liszt's S. 420 which is (IMO) one of the best long-form piano pieces ever written.

[rachmaninoff_forever]

I suppose that you'll do the same any time that someone plays one of the many versions of Paganini's Caprice no. 24 (e.g. Liszt S. 140/141 no. 6, Brahms Paganini Variations, Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Lutoslawski Variations on a Theme of Paganini, etc.)?

Also, what about the various La Clochettes (which there are more of than "La Campanellas" and they generally stay closer to the original piece)? Among them is Liszt's S. 420 which is (IMO) one of the best long-form piano pieces ever written.

Maybe I should change my name to Rachmaninoff sometimes cause I also can’t stand his Paganini variations

[thalbergmad]

Dreyschock composed one as well. No doubt there are more.

Thal