Hardest Piano Pieces to Play
When it comes to the arts, difficulty levels are subjective. Each artist has their own unique skill set which makes standardizing the difficulty level of a piece complicated. Yet, here are five widely acclaimed piano pieces for their rigor.
- Stravinsky – Trois mouvements de Petrouchka
An orchestral and ballet piece, the cascades of arpeggios are the most challenging aspect. They require “lightning-fast jumps over two octaves” which never fail to exhilarate the audience. The piece tells the story of three puppet’s love entanglements.
- Ravel – Gaspard de la Nuit
Double-notes scales in seconds, disjunctive hand movements, repetition, and the tempo of this piece make it extremely difficult to pull off. The piece includes extremely detailed instructions and musicians are very prone to errors due to the overwhelmingly quick tempo.
- Liszt- La Campanella
Called unplayable by some musicians, experts believe that Hungarian composer Franz Liszt was the greatest pianist of the Romantic era. The brisk allegretto tempo with the repeated jumping of octaves requires the pianist to remain extremely agile.
- Beethoven – Hammerklavier
Also known as the Sonata No. 29 in B-flat Major, this piece was also regarded as unplayable. Usually ranging from a 45 minute to one-hour performance, Hammerklavier required skill, perseverance, and stamina.
- Chopin – Fantaisie – Impromptu, Op. 66
This masterpiece’s cross-rhythms, with the left hand playing in triple time while the right hand plays in duple time, make it very difficult to perform. Mathematically aligning the beats is out of question as Chopin designed the piece so that each hand has a mind of its own.
Resources
“Top 10 Most Difficult Classical Piano Pieces – Prodigies Music.” https://prodigies.com/top-10-most-difficult-classical-piano-pieces/.
“The 7 Most Difficult Piano Pieces Ever | Piano Reviewer.” 6 Jun. 2021, https://pianoreviewer.com/the-7-most-difficult-piano-pieces-ever.