Musical Madness 2026! Petrushka, La Clochette, Rach Op. 36, +end of round 2!

[liszt-and-the-galops]

Link to the form for voting: https://forms.gle/DtDwaQbesrnpWyDG6

Pieces in the matches:
Saint-Saëns - Étude Op. 111 no. 1 "Tierces Majeures et Mineures"
C. Schumann - Sonata (mvt. 4)

Alkan - Étude Op. 39 no. 12 "Le Festin d'Ésope"
Rachmaninoff - Op. 36 Sonata no. 2 (mvt. 1) (1913 version)

Szymanowski - Op. 29 Métopes
Stravinsky - Trois Mouvements de Petrouchka

Liszt - S. 420 Grande Fantaisie de Bravoure sur La Clochette
Prokofiev - Op. 84 Sonata no. 8 (mvt. 3)

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

Winners of the previous matchups: La Valse, Scarbo, Lavapiés (see tiebreaker below), and Arabesques et Adages. Full results are available on challonge.

Match #43:
Votes (total): 9-9
Votes (members of pianostreet): 6-5; Lavapiés 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 21st, 2026 (US Eastern time).

[the_franzliszt]

I was going to be so pissed if Tiger Rag somehow moved on

[liszt-and-the-galops]

I was going to be so pissed if Tiger Rag somehow moved on

Thankfully it lost in one of the most lopsided matchups this year (so far, at least).

Honestly, I'm just glad that I can continue to lie to myself about how Lavapiés will win the whole thing lmao.

[thorn]

Honestly, I'm just glad that I can continue to lie to myself about how Lavapiés will win the whole thing lmao.

I'm glad too xD I've been dabbling with it lately since we're talking about it a lot. That first section is full of "redistribute the notes but it's harder to memorise cos you're muddling harmonies vs play as written which clarifies harmony/voicing but it's technically harder" decisions >< I heard the manuscript is full of red pen where Albeniz was trying to strike the best balance (or maybe it was Blanche Selva's score, the woman who premiered it)

[gasplamey]

Surpsised by Rachmaninoff an dsAriaho, shokced by Faure and ALbenxziz.
Voted S-S Rach Petrushka Liszt. I'd bes surprisedc if any of these was close.

[liszt-and-the-galops]

shokced by ... ALbeniz.

Lavapiés is an interesting piece in the context of this tournament. It's undoubtedly one of the hardest pieces in the entire tournament (top 2-5 last year, somewhere in the top 10 this year), but it doesn't have any of the other factors that seem to give pieces a boost (e.g. "bravura," frequently having its difficulty overstated, etc.), so any time it wins it's doing so from actual difficulty alone.

This is in contrast to a piece like Grand Galop Chromatique, which (while extremely difficult) isn't that utterly ridiculous compared to some of the pieces that it's beaten and is able to win partly (or even mostly) because of stuff like bravura and the type of difficulty that it is (fast leaps and octaves).