Musical Madness 2026 Islamey, Alkan Le Preux, +tiebreaker in the group of death!

[liszt-and-the-galops]

Link to the form for voting: https://forms.gle/zeFW3BfBQv5jkjb67

Pieces in the matches:
Alkan - Op. 17 "Le Preux"
Balakirev - Op. 18 Islamey

Albéniz - Lavapiés (Iberia Suite Book III no. 3)
Liszt - S. 140 Études d'Exécution Transcendante d'Après Paganini no. 6 "Theme and Variations"

Saariaho - Arabesques et Adages
Ravel - Alborada del Gracioso (from Miroirs)

Saint-Saëns - Étude Op. 111 No. 5 "Tierces Majeures Chromatiques"
Messiaen - Catalogue d'Oiseaux no. 2 "Le Loriot"

Current bracket: https://challonge.com/musicalmadness26

Winners of the previous matchups: La Valse, Tiger Rag (see tiebreaker below), Scarbo, and Lyapunov Op. 11 no. 12. Full results are available on challonge.

Match #18 (which is now the closest match in tournament history):
Votes (total): 15-15
Votes (members of pianostreet): 5-5
Votes (excluding me): 5-4; Tatum - Tiger Rag wins!

This thread also doubles as the official discussion thread for this match and the results of the previous one.

Voting closes at 8:00 PM on March 7th, 2026 (US Eastern time).

[the_franzliszt]

How in the world did La Valse beat Reminiscences de Lucrezia Borgia ?!?!

If Balakirev Op.18 Islamey doesnt win, I'll learn any Russian piece of Liszt and the Galops' choice

[liszt-and-the-galops]

How in the world did La Valse beat Reminiscences de Lucrezia Borgia ?!?!

By getting (significantly) more votes. As to how that happened, I'm not entirely sure lol. It is an insane transcription, so I'm not too surprised that it won, but I certainly wasn't expecting it to win 25 to 8.

If Balakirev Op.18 Islamey doesnt win, I'll learn any Russian piece of Liszt and the Galops' choice

Yeah, I don't think Islamey has much of a chance in this matchup. (I haven't checked the form once yet, so this doesn't reflect whatever the vote total is right now lol.)

[the_franzliszt]

Yeah, I don't think Islamey has much of a chance in this matchup. (I haven't checked the form once yet, so this doesn't reflect whatever the vote total is right now lol.)

You got the Alkan?

[thorn]

How in the world did La Valse beat Reminiscences de Lucrezia Borgia ?!?!

The one I'm more shocked by is Tiger Rag beating Eritana. It's sight readable at a low tempo, the difficulty would be getting it up to speed. Eritana is difficult even at the sight reading stage.

[the_franzliszt]

The one I'm more shocked by is Tiger Rag beating Eritana. It's sight readable at a low tempo, the difficulty would be getting it up to speed. Eritana is difficult even at the sight reading stage.

Im suprised with that one too. I honestly don't know how Tiger Rag won, it's fairly simple compared to Eritana

[liszt-and-the-galops]

The one I'm more shocked by is Tiger Rag beating Eritana. It's sight readable at a low tempo, the difficulty would be getting it up to speed. Eritana is difficult even at the sight reading stage.

Agreed. It's definitely the most surprising result so far this year. I will go ahead and say that it does NOT look like Lavapiés will suffer the same fate lmao.

Funnily enough, Scarbo advancing is also up there. I seriously expected it to get its third first-round exit in a row.

[thorn]

Agreed. It's definitely the most surprising result so far this year. I will go ahead and say that it does NOT look like Lavapiés will suffer the same fate lmao.

Funnily enough, Scarbo advancing is also up there. I seriously expected it to get its third first-round exit in a row.

Well Lavapiés is the hardest of the entire suite so I'd hope not! Have you heard AdL's four hand arrangement? I can't hear any additions to the original score, it seems she just felt this piece needed four hands- even after her multiple successful recordings of it. Shame it's not her playing, this is the only recording I know of and it's a bit lackluster (needs about 1.10-15x speed playback speed)

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Scarbo is a weird one. I wouldn't say it deserves to win, or even be in top 3, but it shouldn't be a first round exit piece ><

[liszt-and-the-galops]

Due to a personal issue, I have to postpone the next four matches. They'll be posted at 20:00 on Saturday, March 7 (US Eastern time), and the current matches will remain open for voting until then.