Musical Madness 2026! Firebird, Tannhäuser, Rach's hardest Prelude, and more!

[liszt-and-the-galops]

Link to the form for voting: https://forms.gle/HuANXgmCJfdU5xbB7

Pieces in the matches:
Saint-Saëns - Étude Op. 111 No. 6 "Toccata d'Après le Cinquième Concerto"
Stravinsky/Agosti - The Firebird

Liszt - S. 442 Tannhäuser Overture
Falla - Fantasia Baetica

Fauré - Op. 19 Ballade
Chopin - Op. 46 Allegro de Concert

Mussorgsky - Baba Yaga (from Pictures at an Exhibition)
Rachmaninoff - Prelude Op. 23 no. 9

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

Winners of the previous matchups: Chopin Ballade no. 4, La Fantaisie Roumaine, Vingt Regards no. 6, and Fantasy on William Tell. Full results are available on challonge.

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 15th, 2026 (US Eastern time).

(once again, having a hard time coming up with titles for some of these lmfao.)

[gasplamey]

A couple of surprises ig
Schumann over schubert was a luibtle suprising
Szymasnowski winning was really unexpected same with the la closhette
How did paganini variations lose by so much
Thank fxck bumblebdee lost.
Voted Firebird Tannhaszxuer Chopin Mussorgsky. Onmly one that's even clsoe is the last one.

[the_franzliszt]

Voted Firebird Tannhaszxuer Chopin Mussorgsky. Onmly one that's even clsoe is the last one.

I ended up voting the same besides the Mussorgsky, I got the Rachmaninoff over Baba Yaga

[thorn]

Thank fxck bumblebdee lost.

Lol it's possibly the worst arrangement of any piece I've ever heard 

And I went Stravinsky, Falla, Faure, Rach. The Falla won't win but I thought it deserved a vote at least, and for Chopin v Faure remember Liszt couldn't play the Faure but I imagine he could play all of Chopin in the dark.

[liszt-and-the-galops]

Lol it's possibly the worst arrangement of any piece I've ever heard 

I still prefer it to Rachmaninoff's. At least Cziffra's isn't absurdly overplayed (I wonder why) and is actually deserving of being called "difficult."