Franz Liszt published a set of etudes in 1838, named Etudes d'execution trascendante d'apres Paganini, S. 140, based on the violin compositions of Niccolo Paganini. Liszt revised the set in 1851 and republished it as Grandes études de Paganini, and it is almost exclusively in this form that these work are played today. This set of etudes counts among the most technically demanding pieces in the piano literature, especially in the first version. The second version removed some of the most outrageous technical difficulties, such as the very frequent eleventh stretches.
