Musical Madness 2026 is here! Pieces list, Nominations, and Play-in Matches

[liszt-and-the-galops]

Musical Madness is back for 2026! For those who missed the first two tournaments 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 of the Musical Madness website (https://sites.google.com/view/musicalmadness-ps/how-it-all-works), 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 60 pieces excluding play-in matches).
• After 1 week, the nomination round ends and the 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 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.

The tournament begins with the nomination round, which will run until 8:00 PM on Saturday, Feb 14th (US Eastern time). There are a few restrictions that all pieces (including nominated ones) 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). Alternative performances that are longer than 15 minutes may also be used.
• All pieces must have at least 100 results if you search for them on pianostreet ("common repertoire"). I will be lenient regarding search parameters, as long as a reasonable person familiar with the piece in question would be able to know what the search is referring to.
• 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.
• Pieces in Play-in matches are final and will not be substituted.

Pieces list:

Albéniz - Triana (Iberia Suite Book II no. 3), Alicia de Larrocha
Albéniz - Lavapiés (Iberia Suite Book III no. 3), Alicia de Larrocha
Albéniz - Eritaña (Iberia Suite Book IV no. 3), Alicia de Larrocha

Alkan - Op. 17 "Le Preux," Huang Yi-Chung
Alkan - Étude Op. 39 no. 1 "Comme le Vent," Vincenzo Maltempo
Alkan - Étude Op. 39 no. 12 "Le Festin d'Ésope," Jack Gibbons

Balakirev - Op. 18 Islamey, Ivo Pogorelić

Bartók - Étude Op. 18 no. 3, Zoltán Kocsis

Beethoven - Op. 106 Sonata no. 29 "Hammerklavier" (mvt. 4), Maurizio Pollini

Brahms - Op. 35 Variations on a Theme of Paganini (Book I), György Cziffra
Brahms - Study no. 1, Idil Biret

Chopin - Op. 46 Allegro de Concert, Vladimir Ashkenazy
Chopin - Op. 52 Ballade no. 4, Seong-Jin Cho
Chopin/Godowsky - Study no. 47 "Badinage," Susanne Anatchkova

Cziffra - Fantasy on William Tell, György Cziffra
Cziffra - La Fantaisie Roumaine, György Cziffra

Debussy - Étude no. 12 "Pour les Accords," Mitsuko Uchida

Falla - Fantasia Baetica, Joaquín Achúcarro

Fauré - Op. 19 Ballade, Lucas Debargue

Granados - Op. 11 Goyescas no. 1 "Los Requiebros," Alicia de Larrocha

Hummel - Op. 81 Sonata no. 5 (mvt. 3), Stephen Hough

Liszt - S. 140 Études d'Exécution Transcendante d'Après Paganini no. 3 "La Campanella," Sung Chang
Liszt - S. 140 Études d'Exécution Transcendante d'Après Paganini no. 6 "Theme and Variations," Elisa Tomellini
Liszt - S. 218 Galop in A Minor, France Clidat
Liszt - S. 420 Grande Fantaisie de Bravoure sur La Clochette, Sergio Fiorentino
Liszt - S. 442 Tannhäuser Overture, György Cziffra

Lyapunov - Op. 11 Transcendental Etudes no. 12 "Elégie en Mémoire de François Liszt," Florian Noack

Medtner - Op. 25 no. 2 "Night Wind" Sonata (mvt. 2 "Allegro" ONLY), Severin Von Eckardstein
Medtner - Op. 25 no. 2 "Night Wind" Sonata (mvt. 5 "Quasi Cadenza" ONLY), Severin Von Eckardstein

Mendelssohn - Étude Op. 104b no. 1, Peter Shannon

Messiaen - Vingt Regards no. 6 "Par Lui tout a été fait," Yvonne Loriod
Messiaen - Catalogue d'Oiseaux no. 2 "Le Loriot," Yvonne Loriod

Mozart - K. 576 Sonata no. 18, Daniel Barenboim

Mussorgsky - Baba Yaga (from Pictures at an Exhibition), Khatia Buniatishvili

Price - Sonata (mvt. 3), Michelle Cann

Prokofiev - Op. 83 Sonata no. 7 (mvt. 3), Sviatoslav Richter
Prokofiev - Op. 84 Sonata no. 8 (mvt. 3), Sviatoslav Richter

Rachmaninoff - Prelude Op. 23 no. 9, Vladimir Ashkenazy
Rachmaninoff - Op. 36 Sonata no. 2 (mvt. 1) (1913 version), Zoltán Kocsis
Mendelssohn/Rachmaninoff - Op. 61 Scherzo from A Midsummer Night's Dream, Nikolai Lugansky

Ravel - Alborada del Gracioso (from Miroirs), Sviatoslav Richter
Ravel - Ondine (from Gaspard de la Nuit), Martha Argerich
Ravel - Scarbo (from Gaspard de la Nuit), Martha Argerich
Ravel/Gryaznov - La Valse, Vyacheslav Gryaznov

Saariaho - Arabesques et Adages, Tuija Hakkila

Saint-Saëns - Étude Op. 111 no. 1 "Tierces Majeures et Mineures," Marylene Dosse
Saint-Saëns - Étude Op. 111 No. 5 "Tierces Majeures Chromatiques," Marylene Dosse
Saint-Saëns - Étude Op. 111 No. 6 "Toccata d'Après le Cinquième Concerto," François-René Duchâble

Scarlatti - K. 141 Sonata, HJ Lim

Schubert - D. 958 Sonata (mvt. 4), Grigory Sokolov

C. Schumann - Sonata (mvt. 1), Jozef De Beenhouwer
C. Schumann - Sonata (mvt. 4), Jozef De Beenhouwer

R. Schumann - Op. 17 Fantaisie (mvt. 2), Alicia de Larrocha

Scriabin - Étude Op. 8 no. 12, Sung Chang
Scriabin - Op. 53 Sonata no. 5, Peter Laul
Scriabin - Op. 66 Sonata no. 8, Vladimir Sofronitsky

Stravinsky - Trois Mouvements de Petrouchka, Maurizio Pollini
Stravinsky/Agosti - The Firebird, Francesco Piemontesi

Szymanowski - Op. 29 Métopes, Martin Roscoe

Tatum - Tiger Rag

Key: composer(s) - piece, pianist

Alternative performance suggestions are also welcome for pieces that are already on the list (e.g. "Hamelin performance of Alkan op. 39 no. 10 instead of Jack Gibbons")


New for this year, I’m running four “Play-in matches” that are open for voting from now until the nomination round ends:
Play-in match #1
Brahms/Cziffra - Hungarian Dance no. 5
Rimsky-Korsakov/Cziffra - Flight of the Bumblebee
https://forms.gle/DF9S2sA5FDYbuVqt5

Play-in match #2
Chopin - Étude Op. 10 no. 7 "Toccata"
Chopin - Étude Op. 25 no. 4 "Paganini"
https://forms.gle/BhksvH2HJmqnztmo6

Play-in match #3
Liszt - S. 400 Reminiscences de Lucrezia Borgia (Trio du Seconde Acte ONLY)
Liszt - S. 418 Reminiscences de Don Juan
https://forms.gle/iLkifpcsoYDJPXoY7

Play-in match #4
Liszt - S. 137 Douze Grandes Études no. 2 "Fusées"
Liszt - S. 137 Douze Grandes Études no. 5 "Feux Follets"
https://forms.gle/CCyLWri6o4Y6aLvp8


Helpful links:
Website homepage: https://sites.google.com/view/musicalmadness-ps/home
How it all works page: https://sites.google.com/view/musicalmadness-ps/how-it-all-works
2026 schedule: https://sites.google.com/view/musicalmadness-ps/schedule-for-2026
MM26 Youtube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLC1UP-qEr3ZfZt8Tud4k4SVuIWD5VnoTb

[gasplamey]

That S-S thirds piece is not possiblyt I don't' think.
Also theres another one from the same set that looks just as bad (no. 5). I'll throw that isn as a suggestion,.
Also what happened to the Czenrytg piece that won last year? sonata 10 or something?
In terms of the "play in matches" id' be shoicked if bumblebee toccata or don jaun lost and the bubmblebee is prob hgoing to be lamost unbeatable. last one is close tho.

[moonlight88]

looked at the list and not too interested in this overall but I love Faure so i'll say this.
Lucas debargue's Faure Ballade. it's really new so i think you prob just didn't see it. the video also has the sheet music which is more helpful to people trying to evaluate difficulty than just seeing the hands.

maybe i just like debargue a lot because i also want to suggest his toccata which is one of my fav modern piano pieces and its pretty darn tough

also you do not need to include the full title for la campanella lol.

[liszt-and-the-galops]

That S-S thirds piece is not possiblyt I don't' think.

Multiple people have recorded it, so clearly it is. Though I agree that it's incredibly difficult.

Also what happened to the Czenrytg piece that won last year? sonata 10 or something?

I looked at the sheet music for it and realized it was WAY harder than I realized, so I made up a rule that bans pieces that won the tournament (when it had 64 pieces in it) from returning, as sort of a "glory retirement."

Also theres another one from the same set that looks just as bad (no. 5). I'll throw that isn as a suggestion,.

I also really don't like S. 252, so I might extend the aforementioned "glory retirement" rule to the runner up as well. That would make room for this piece.

Lucas debargue's Faure Ballade. it's really new so i think you prob just didn't see it.

On the money, lol.

maybe i just like debargue a lot because i also want to suggest his toccata which is one of my fav modern piano pieces and its pretty darn tough

I seem to only be able to get one result for searching it on this website, so unfortunately I have to turn this one down. I do like it, though! :)

also you do not need to include the full title for la campanella lol.

It helps for clarifying that it's the 1838 version, rather than more popular (and much easier) 1852 version.

[thorn]

• All pieces must have at least 100 results if you search for them on pianostreet ("common repertoire"). I will be lenient regarding search parameters, as long as a reasonable person familiar with the piece in question would be able to know what the search is referring to.

It's a shame about this (and at a quick skim the Price and Saariaho already don't meet this). I mean do we really need 5 Alkans, 5 Chopins (+ another 2 in play in), 8 Liszts (+ another 4 in play in), and secondly given the strongly Romantic tastes of most piano forums how many people are going to be nominating obscure pieces in the first place (predominantly me as it's time a 20th c piece won this haha). The play in matches could have been a good opportunity to include off the beaten track rep via consensus, but at this point could it be on a case-by-case basis?

These are my nominations- the ones that don't have 100 results are italicised. But here's my argument for including them.
1. The italicised transcriptions are by newer transcribers so they're not going to show up on searches compared to more established names like Cziffra (who gets 3 slots here + 2 in the play in), but a) why should we restrict ourselves to old masters with stuff like the Debussy and Ravel pieces I mentioned below, and b) why should we ignore new transcriptions of less famous works like the Smetana? (Btw some of this depends what country you're in, I heard of the Smetana via my Czech friend who says he's a super famous composer over there)
2. Florent Schmitt is only obscure because of political controversy, he was once talked about in the same breath as Debussy and Ravel. So again, his not showing up in searches is nothing to do with how his music was viewed at the time.
3. Szymanowski doesn't show up in searches because his best pieces have the double whammy of being super difficult and overshadowed by Gaspard, Rachmaninov etc. But he's performed by big names like the Richter and Zimerman recordings I mention below, so surely that has to count for something?

My list:
Albeniz- all of the Iberia final movements should go in if you're having Triana IMO. I think Lavapies is #1, but #2-4 is debateable between Corpus Christi, Triana, and Eritana.
Debussy/Gryaznov- Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune, Vyacheslav Gryaznov
Granados- Los Requiebros (from Goyescas), Alicia de Larrocha.
Falla- Fantasia Baetica, Joaquín Achúcarro.
Messiaen- Vingt Regards no. 10 "Regard de l'Esprit de joie", Yvonne Loriod (either her live or the score version) *I'd personally vote 6 as harder, but it's hard to listen to so this might be easier on voters' ears (same reason I'm not recommending any CdO pieces)
Ravel- Toccata (from Tombeau de Couperin), Yvonne Lefébure
Ravel/Gryaznov- La Valse, Vyacheslav Gryaznov
Schmitt- J'entends dans le lointain (from Ombres), Werner Bärtschi
Smetana/de Kaan- La Moldau, François-Xavier Poizat
Szymanowski- Tantris le Bouffon (from Masques, op.34), Sviatoslav Richer (starts 9 mins in, there's no individual track)
Szymanowski- Sérénade de Don Juan (from Masques, op.34), Krystian Zimerman (sadly Richter only recorded the first two movements)

I'm sure I had others, I'll add if I remember them.

[liszt-and-the-galops]

(and at a quick skim the Price and Saariaho already don't meet this)

Last I checked, "Price Sonata movement 3" gets 667 results, and "Saariaho Arabesques and Adages" somehow gets 57216. I'm just as confused as you probably are, lmfao.

I mean do we really need 5 Alkans, 5 Chopins, 8 Liszts

Honestly we could have an entire tournament on Liszt pieces and a 32-piece tournament on Chopin pieces. Alkan is less justified because he didn't write that many truly difficult pieces (as a percentage) and the ones he did write aren't even close to his best pieces. Honestly I'd be fine with removing Le Preux, Scherzo Focoso, and the third movement of the Concerto because I just don't like them, though I'll probably end up keeping Le Preux just because, even though it's my least favorite Alkan piece by a margin, it's difficult to the point that it's legitimately funny.

(predominantly me as it's time a 20th c piece won this haha).

I agree; I'm rooting for Lavapiés, though I'd honestly be shocked if the William Tell Fantasy didn't win the whole thing.

The play in matches could have been a good opportunity to include off the beaten track rep via consensus, but at this point could it be on a case-by-case basis?

My goal with the play-in matches was for voters to pick one of two similar pieces to be in the tournament instead of including both, which would leave more room for more obscure stuff. (Hence why they all fall into similar categories, namely "short Cziffra arrangements," "ChopEts," "Liszt Reminiscences," and "Liszt Etudes;" the reason it's only four is because the real tournament only has four and I didn't want to have too many).

Albeniz- all of the Iberia final movements should go in if you're having Triana IMO. I think Lavapies is #1, but #2-4 is debateable between Corpus Christi, Triana, and Eritana.

I included Triana specifically because it's one of the most well-known within the set and it's my personal favorite. I do also like Eritaña though, so I might include it.

Edit: most results I'm getting right now is 88 from "Albeniz Iberia no. 12," but I'll see if it can be arranged...

Edit2: 105 now. I'm adding it.

Debussy/Gryaznov- Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune, Vyacheslav Gryaznov

I only get a handful of results for the original version, let alone the transcription. :(

Granados- Los Requiebros (from Goyescas), Alicia de Larrocha.
Falla- Fantasia Baetica, Joaquín Achúcarro

Sure! :)

Messiaen- Vingt Regards no. 10 "Regard de l'Esprit de joie", Yvonne Loriod (either her live or the score version) *I'd personally vote 6 as harder, but it's hard to listen to so this might be easier on voters' ears (same reason I'm not recommending any CdO pieces)

I honestly don't find any of the Vingt Regards (or much of anything, really) "hard to listen to." I didn't include no. 10 because I don't particularly like it, but I could swap it for something else.

Also, I was literally going to ask you for suggestions from CdO because I've never gotten around to listening to it lmfao.

Ravel/Gryaznov- La Valse, Vyacheslav Gryaznov

La Valse is actually already in the tournament (and Sung Chang plays the full version, I believe), unless this is a different transcription that I'm not aware of? Here's his recording, for reference:

Schmitt- J'entends dans le lointain (from Ombres), Werner Bärtschi
Smetana/de Kaan- La Moldau, François-Xavier Poizat
Szymanowski- Tantris le Bouffon (from Masques, op.34), Sviatoslav Richer (starts 9 mins in, there's no individual track)
Szymanowski- Sérénade de Don Juan (from Masques, op.34), Krystian Zimerman (sadly Richter only recorded the first two movements)

Admittedly not familiar with any of these. I'll give them a listen later this week.

[gasplamey]

Almost forgor
Mendelsohn/Rach - Scherzo from a Midsummer Nights Dream

[liszt-and-the-galops]

Updated the OP with the remaining pieces from thorn's suggestions (dropped Alkan - Op. 34 and Op. 39 no. 10 as well as Liszt - S. 254), and also swapped Cziffra's Blue Danube for Art Tatum's Tiger Rag (which I was reminded of by a comment on second to last post wins -- thanks, moonlight88!).

Almost forgor
Mendelsohn/Rach - Scherzo from a Midsummer Nights Dream

I'll try to shoehorn it in somewhere ("Rachmaninoff Op. 61" gets 107 results), though what recording/performance do you suggest? I'm not aware of any that are better than Lugansky's live one from 2004, though I listen to almost no Rachmaninoff so I'm aware of almost no Rachmaninoff interpretations lol.

Edit: decided to apply the "glory retirement" rule to Grand Galop Chromatique as well. Even though I actually do like it, let's just say that it 100% would have lost (badly) in the first round lmao.

[thorn]

I included Triana specifically because it's one of the most well-known within the set and it's my personal favorite. I do also like Eritaña though, so I might include it.

Edit: most results I'm getting right now is 88 from "Albeniz Iberia no. 12," but I'll see if it can be arranged...

Edit2: 105 now. I'm adding it.

Yeah this is one example of the problem with search results. Individual movements are more popular but that's not always a reflection of internal difficulty within the suite. To me Eritaña is a harder version of Triana (same dance, heavier texture, more complex harmony).

I only get a handful of results for the original version, let alone the transcription. :(

This is another issue with search results. This is Debussy's most important work yet there's less results than the Saariaho xD

Also, I was literally going to ask you for suggestions from CdO because I've never gotten around to listening to it lmfao.

Oh okay haha xD Well the hardest is no.7 but it's 30 mins so too long for this. My favourite is no.4 but it's on my bucket list vs f*ck that list. I guess for this contest I'd go with either no.2 or no.12 because they're the shortest of the more difficult ones (thinking of voters having to listen to this stuff).

Le Loriot (link is all of book 1, it's no.2)

i=HGRAUX2KQxzJg5cM

Le Traquet rieur (no.12) *Peter Hill is my favourite version of all these pieces but only 7-13 are on YT.

i=B1_92TZR-dmurMsS

La Valse is actually already in the tournament (and Sung Chang plays the full version, I believe), unless this is a different transcription that I'm not aware of? Here's his recording, for reference:

It's a different transcription, and more difficult imo

i=lKcu-Bho4K7faO1n

Admittedly not familiar with any of these. I'll give them a listen later this week.

Amazing I get it'd be a stretch to put Schmitt/Smetana in (though I love the Schmitt Ombres, they're like a second Gaspard), but there definitely needs to be a Szymanowski- he's way more significant a composer than search results allow (Poles consider him their second greatest after Chopin, also he was good friends with Rubinstein). His most difficult works are Masques, Metopes, and Sonatas 2+3. I only recommended mvts 2 and 3 of Masques but definitely listen to Richter's 1st mvt (Sheherazade) too! For Metopes I should have nominated the final movement, Nausicaa too. I don't know the sonatas well enough to rank relative movement difficulty but I'll relisten to them this week.

i=zZvtfVxRI5dFx1J4

[liszt-and-the-galops]

Yeah this is one example of the problem with search results. Individual movements are more popular but that's not always a reflection of internal difficulty within the suite. To me Eritaña is a harder version of Triana (same dance, heavier texture, more complex harmony).

The other thing with search results is that they can be manipulated to slightly boost a specific piece's results, which is what I just did for Eritaña.

This is another issue with search results. This is Debussy's most important work yet there's less results than the Saariaho xD

It just occurred to me that the likely reason for the Saariaho having such an absurd number of results is because of "and." If you search the original title (Arabesques et Adages), you get literally one result (this thread). But if you translate the one non-english word, suddenly there's over 50,000 lmfao.

Side note: Saariaho was probably the greatest living composer as of less than three years ago, so the fact that this is the first time she's been brought up on this forum is criminal.

Though I still don't have any clue at all as to why the Debussy only gets something like 25 results.

Oh okay haha xD Well the hardest is no.7 but it's 30 mins so too long for this. My favourite is no.4 but it's on my bucket list vs f*ck that list. I guess for this contest I'd go with either no.2 or no.12 because they're the shortest of the more difficult ones (thinking of voters having to listen to this stuff).

Le Loriot (link is all of book 1, it's no.2)

i=HGRAUX2KQxzJg5cM

Le Traquet rieur (no.12) *Peter Hill is my favourite version of all these pieces but only 7-13 are on YT.

i=B1_92TZR-dmurMsS

I was planning to have one piece from VR and one from CdO, so I'll listen to those two this week and go with one of them.

Also lmfao at "bucket list vs. f_ck that list."

Edit: listened to both of the ones you suggested and I will say that I prefer no. 2. Also, I went ahead and looked at pianolibrary.org's ranking of them (they have difficulty rankings of a lot of piano pieces on a "scale from 1 to 5"); they rank nos. 2, 3, 7, 9, and 12 as the most difficult (obviously with seven being too long). Search results cuts it down to nos. 2 and 3 (each with 2-300), so I'll probably go with no. 2. Thanks again for the suggestion! :)

It's a different transcription, and more difficult imo

i=lKcu-Bho4K7faO1n

You know what, Hamelin's version of Liszt - Hungarian Rhapsody no. 2 technically didn't make the cut last year (if you specified that it was using Hamelin's Cadenza), so I can make an excuse to include this version of La Valse. I prefer this one to Ravel's original transcription anyways, too.

Amazing ... there definitely needs to be a Szymanowski- he's way more significant a composer than search results allow (Poles consider him their second greatest after Chopin, also he was good friends with Rubinstein). His most difficult works are Masques, Metopes, and Sonatas 2+3. I only recommended mvts 2 and 3 of Masques but definitely listen to Richter's 1st mvt (Sheherazade) too! For Metopes I should have nominated the final movement, Nausicaa too. I don't know the sonatas well enough to rank relative movement difficulty but I'll relisten to them this week.

i=zZvtfVxRI5dFx1J4

I'll check those out as well. :)

Also, I'll probably be dropping the Rigoletto Paraphrase and Chopin Op. 22 (possibly Op. 23 as well) to make room for the above pieces. Obviously just going to be swapping La Valse to the more difficult version.

Edit2: the username of another user here reminded me of Lyapunov's Op. 11, a completion of Liszt's original goal of writing 24 Etudes (one in every key). They all meet the search result requirement handily ("Op. 11 Transcendental Etudes no. _"), so I'm listening those to maybe include the hardest among them.

Edit3: That's going to end up being no. 12.

[thorn]

It just occurred to me that the likely reason for the Saariaho having such an absurd number of results is because of "and." If you search the original title (Arabesques et Adages), you get literally one result (this thread). But if you translate the one non-english word, suddenly there's over 50,000 lmfao.

Side note: Saariaho was probably the greatest living composer as of less than three years ago, so the fact that this is the first time she's been brought up on this forum is criminal.

Though I still don't have any clue at all as to why the Debussy only gets something like 25 results.

Yeah most likely! And yeah lots of great modern composers get overlooked.

And with the Debussy my guess is because the composer only made a two piano transcription (Argerich and Kovacevich played it- too fast IMO), compared to La Valse where Ravel made both a solo and duet version. Now I think of it many Ravel complete sets have La Valse but I can't think of a single Debussy set that has the Prelude- likely for the above reason.

Edit: listened to both of the ones you suggested and I will say that I prefer no. 2. Also, I went ahead and looked at pianolibrary.org's ranking of them (they have difficulty rankings of a lot of piano pieces on a "scale from 1 to 5"); they rank nos. 2, 3, 7, 9, and 12 as the most difficult (obviously with seven being too long). Search results cuts it down to nos. 2 and 3 (each with 2-300), so I'll probably go with no. 2. Thanks again for the suggestion! :)

No 2 is a good choice! And I checked the pianolibrary page and had totally forgotten about Cantéyodjayâ (in the most difficult list). I wrote one of my undergrad papers on this piece, it's based on classical Indian music and well worth a listen!

You know what, Hamelin's version of Liszt - Hungarian Rhapsody no. 2 technically didn't make the cut last year (if you specified that it was using Hamelin's Cadenza), so I can make an excuse to include this version of La Valse. I prefer this one to Ravel's original transcription anyways, too.

Haha, yeah I think in this case originals count as part of the search results. People make new transcriptions of stuff all the time.

Edit2: the username of another user here reminded me of Lyapunov's Op. 11, a completion of Liszt's original goal of writing 24 Etudes (one in every key). They all meet the search result requirement handily ("Op. 11 Transcendental Etudes no. _"), so I'm listening those to maybe include the hardest among them.

Edit3: That's going to end up being no. 12.

Oh yeah I love the Lyapunov set. 10 and 11 seem to be the most popular- 10 because of the Islamey references and 11 because of Feux Follets. But the others are great too.

Speaking of etudes I'm guessing the Kapustin and Ligeti sets were deliberately left out? And I think I'm the only one to ever mention them on this forum but you should check out the Fujikura ones too:

Etude 1 (starts 1:30)

i=lR9UMxa1YvcxwHKp

Etude 2 (starts 1:18)

i=ZJxNQt8G2Qgt5Y58

[liszt-and-the-galops]

Speaking of etudes I'm guessing the Kapustin and Ligeti sets were deliberately left out? And I think I'm the only one to ever mention them on this forum but you should check out the Fujikura ones too:

Etude 1 (starts 1:30)

i=lR9UMxa1YvcxwHKp

Etude 2 (starts 1:18)

i=ZJxNQt8G2Qgt5Y58

The thing with the Ligeti Etudes is that, unlike (for example) Xenakis, the "method to the madness" is incredibly difficult to discern so most people will assume that it's just random notes. Also, the hardest one (no. 14/14a) is physically impossible, while the second hardest (no. 13) isn't exactly a very "vote-able" piece, if that makes sense.

I'm not at all familiar enough with Kasputin to make an educated inclusion, and I've never heard of Fujikura before this.

[thorn]

Yeah that makes sense re. Ligeti. And I don't know the Kapustin etudes that well either. Years ago he was pretty popular on this forum, perhaps someone else can comment on him.

Update on Szymanowski: I re-listened to Sonatas 2 and 3 which both have more search results than Metopes/Masques (208 and 192 respectively). So my final two Szymanowski suggestions are:

Op.21 Sonata no.2 (mvt.1), Marc-André Hamelin (not necessarily my favourite but has a score)

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Op.36 Sonata no.3 (mvt.4), Keita Terada (again, not my personal favourite but has a score). Starts at 12:20.

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The hardest mvt of both sonatas is the final one, but in the case of no.2 it's too long for this contest so suggested the 1st mvt instead. So the second video is hardest, but the first is perhaps more 'vote-able' to use your word. Depends how you want to do it!

[liszt-and-the-galops]

Final updates (probably) before start of the bracket contest at 8:00 PM/20:00, US Eastern time:

Swapped Chopin - Op. 22 Andante Spianato et Grande Polonaise Brillante for Op. 46 Allegro de Concert (pianist: Vladimir Ashkenazy).

Swapped Chopin - Op. 38 Ballade no. 2 for Szymanowski - Op. 29 Métopes (Martin Roscoe) (I'll continue to be open to alternative performance suggestions for this piece, as I haven't listened to very many recordings of it).

[thorn]

Swapped Chopin - Op. 38 Ballade no. 2 for Szymanowski - Op. 29 Métopes (Martin Roscoe) (I'll continue to be open to alternative performance suggestions for this piece, as I haven't listened to very many recordings of it).

The complete set or an individual movement? And Martin Roscoe is a great Szymanowski player, plus that recording has a score on YT, so I think that's a good choice. What made you go with Métopes in the end? (Just curiosity, I obviously like all the Szymanowski I suggested so nice to see him included)

[liszt-and-the-galops]

The complete set or an individual movement? And Martin Roscoe is a great Szymanowski player, plus that recording has a score on YT, so I think that's a good choice. What made you go with Métopes in the end? (Just curiosity, I obviously like all the Szymanowski I suggested so nice to see him included)

The full set is only barely over 15 minutes, and since there are already multiple pieces in the tournament that are in the 15-16 minute range I figured that I may as well include the full thing. I chose Métopes specifically mostly because it was my favorite among the pieces you recommended, lol.

[thorn]

That's fair enough, and tbh although I suggested the final movement the ending does make more sense after hearing the complete set.

Also I forgot Granados himself recorded Los Requiebros. I don't think it's the best recording for the contest because he doesn't play exactly what he wrote in the score, but definitely worth hearing. It's very rare composers record their most difficult pieces, they usually go for safer options haha

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