Hi! :), I tried to make this list as best as possible from what I learned in my previous two lists, and for those who are confused on why La Campanella is first, I made this video SPECIFICALLY for the hardest piano pieces! CORRECTION: at 4:11, John Cage wrote the "Solo for Piano," not John Stump!
finnissy really hit the keyboard of his piano with every household object he could find very rapidly and dared to call that "composition" "english country tunes"
I think that a lot of really hard pieces sometimes sacrifice ease of listening for a display of extremely high musical ability, and there's nothing necessarily wrong with that, but I think it's remarkable how Hamelin's pieces manage to be both incredibly complex and incredibly fun to listen to at the same time.
The Hamelin Etude is hard af, though I have a recommendation to add to your list, Stravinsky Petrushka and Firebird Suite, they are both underrated, and Jesus Christ is that piece one of the most brutal piece that everyone messes up the first chords at even the most prestigious comps
Just a little suggestion: Maybe you can use the most technically challenging excerpt from each piece because some excerpts used here make it seem like it is easier than the previous pieces (Example being Phase 14).
@@graydusk1039The part which is the most technically challenging can be used. If there are multiple parts with similar difficulty then any of those parts can be picked. But in some of these pieces the “less challenging” parts were used, like Phase 14, which was just a series of single half and quarter notes.
(the last one) piano players like us often had no idea for ur music that u want to "compose" u want to make the song catchy and aggresive, usually we all press this random octaves together but we often dont remember what we even play but sorebji is different, he ran out of idea so he composed this
For Sorabji, it will never be random notes. What you are hearing in the last one is one of the motifs heard early on in the cadenza. Like many other contemporary composers, it is the old classical forms, with the new devices such as atonality, polytonality, and of course chromaticism.
@@Lordversus44it’s also being played with a crappy MIDI recording. sorabji has a dinstinct and extremely complex harmonic style (somewhere between Messaien and Finnissy) and writes gargantuan pieces with diverse structures. this section is the climax at the end of one of his biggest works, so it’s expected that it’s gonna be rather inaccessible to most listeners he’ll write some of the ugliest stuff you’ve ever heard, but then he’ll also write some of the most ethereal/beautiful ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-uFyZ7rgKaXc.html
His first piece is technically a romance for piano and violin (i think) and three nocturnes as well as a piece in d minor, but he saved his opus 1 number for piano concerto
I highly agree with the placement of the Sorabji, Alkan, and Finnissy pieces (especially Fantaisie Espagnole). However, I would argue that Liszt's Transcendental Etude No. 5, "Feux Follets" deserves a place on this list.
@@nejibensassi5657Following this ranking system, the 9th Symphony Transcription would be 9.2 at best (If it was up to me I wouldn’t even put La Clochette, Alkan Symphony, nor the 9th Symphony Transcription in the 9’s; I would put them in the later half of the 8’s.).
Nice selection. I've never heard of some of these before, but the Sorabji and Xenakis ones are especially crazy. I also like to recommend Liszt's Spanish Fantasy which deserves to be on the list. Not sure where it fits though, probably just under the first Finnissy piece, or Hamelin etudes. Another composer I'd recommend would be Skalkottas, his pieces are hell.
@@ethanmclovin1310 Nice to meet someone who's also played the Spanish Fantasy as I have. :) And I definitely agree. At first, I thought it would be just under Finnissy, but the Hamelin etudes are a nightmare, and yeah, it's definitely under the Hamelin.
0:00 | F. Liszt - La Campanella 0:16 | F. Chopin - Etude Op. 26 No. 6 “Double Thirds” 0:37 | F. Chopin - Piano Sonata No. 1 1:05 | M. Ravel - Mirroirs 1:16 | S. Rachmaninoff (Russian: Rachmaninov) - Piano Sonata No. 1 1:47 | L. V. Beethoven - Diabelli Variations Op. 120 2:12 | A. Scriabin - 3 Etudes in Different Intervals 2:37 | S. Barber - Piano Sonata 2:44 | Chopin/Godowsky - Studies After Chopin Etudes 3:11 | C. V. Alkan - Symphony for Solo Piano 3:51 | F. Liszt - Grande Fantasia di Bravura Sur La Clochette de Paganini 4:08 | J. Cage - Solo for Piano 4:42 | Hamelin - Etudes in All Minor Keys 5:16 | I. Xenakis - Herma 5:42 | M. Finnissy - English Country Tunes 6:17 | J. Stump - Prelude and The Last Hope in C and C♯ Minor 6:24 | Sorabji - Fantasie Espagnole 6:44 | Sorabji - Opus Clevicembalisticum 7:04 | M. Finnissy - Verdi Transcriptions 7:24 | Sorabji - Piano Sonata No. 5
The last pieces may just as be spamming random notes onto it and adding the most complex polyrhythms you've seen, besides sorabji sonata V as it is still listen-able due to not being that atonal
Interesting selection. Thank you. Just as a little fun game, here some other suggestions: 1) Stravinsky, Petrushka 2) Messiaen, “Vingt regards sur l’enfant Jésus 3) Beethoven, Hammerklavier 4) Bartok, Etudes 5) Prokofiev, Sonata N. 8 6) Albeniz, Iberia 7) Ravel, Gaspard de la nuit 8) Brahms, Paganini variations 9) Schulz-Evler, Arabesken über „An der schönen blauen Donau“ von J. Strauß 10) Balakirev, Islamey They are all past the point of no return for any pianist.
@@sebastian-benedictflore Good for you! You must be a very skilled pianist and I am happy for you. I remember playing both Balakirev and Scriabin and always found the first way more difficult to play. Of course, this is just my personal experience. I guess Liszt’s Don Juan would settle the disagreement immediately 😉
Everyone is talking about Finnissy as just banging on the piano but lots of his pieces are actually quite listenable and even beautiful. Try his Gershwin Arrangements
The first half sounds incredibly difficult, the other half sounds like a transcription of a simple improvised solo by a pianist, easy to play but difficult to reproduce.
From the excerpt, it seems that Alkan's Symphony for piece should be at most 3 on the list. The difficulty stems from the speed of the piece. IMO, isn't harder than what's required for even some parts in La Campanella. Still, it would be quite challenging regardless.
He’s talking about the whole symphony. This section is only one of many difficult passages, and none of them are comfortable under the fingers, read the score out on the piano, and you’ll see what I mean by that. Alkan has written easier pieces than this, thankfully.
I placed the last movement, and it’s horrifically difficult. The finger patterns are extremely awkward, especially at this speed. (Which I can never achieve).
im curious , how hard is mereaux's "scherzo alla napolitana " compared to these? i am not nearly good enough to judge the difficulty of pieces of this caliber of difficulty but maybe someone knows
But Alkan's piano concert and Liszt/Beethoven 9th symphony are still hardest. And that the most difficult pieces on this list are... not listenable music🙃
La Campanella: 7/10 Double Thirds: 8/10 Chopin Sonata: 8.3/10 Mirroirs: 8.5/10 Rach Sonata: 8.8/10 Diabelli Variations: 8.8/10 Scriabin Etudes: 8.6/10 Barber Sonata: 9/10 Godowsky Etudes: 9.4/10 Alkan Symphony: 9/10 Liszt La Clochette: 9.2/10 Cage Solo: 8.5/10 (I don't know if it is so so difficult to play, but it's a very long piece and it's extremely difficult to reading) Hamelin Etudes: 8.8/10 Xenakis Herma: 9.6/10 Finissy English Country Tunes: 9.5/10 Stump Prelude: 8.2/10 (Not very difficult, but the reading contributes to that grade) Sorabji Fantasie Espagnole: 8.6/10 Opus Clavicembalisticum: 9.7/10 Finissy Verdi Transcriptions: 8.9/10 Sorabji Sonata 5: 9.2/10
Hamelin etudes are a nightmare, especially 9 and 12. They’re definitely above the Alkan symphony, and if we’re counting the entire set in one sitting, ahead of La Clochette as well.
Sorabji is the aisle of more or less acceptable traditional pianism in European academic music. Next comes a new complexity with the most complex rhythmic and structural structures. Sorabji is still pleasing to my ears.
I've been thinking, I assume that's not a real thing but how would Piano DUELS work? Not duet, DUELS. As in How would a Piano 1v1 look? What would be the criteria/rules for it? I assume the goal would be to try to play the most impressive sounding music for the longest time, if both or either critics and audience doesn't like you then you're out and opponent wins. But the issue here is that idk if this would work, it's a duel so both must play at the same time so I assume they would ruin each others music. Also improvising on fly could be another criteria.
If you'd like a more colloquially understandable rendition of "VII. Cadenza I" from Opus Clavicembalisticum: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-2_U6orbD_4g.html Also, please don't use the Ogdon rendition. It's a terribly inaccurate representation of what Sorabji's music actually is.
@@sci_stationcraft_brothers5371 there’s a singular ossia that’s for the left hand (the middle line), and then the bottom two lines are a separate ossia for if both hands are too hard 😅
Hi, I’ve been playing piano for two years and my last pieces were: Prelude in E minor; Moonlight sonata mov.1; Consolation n.3. So I wanted to know if you could recommend me some piano pieces, because I’m a little lost on what I should play.
I would start at Beethoven’s “simpler” sonatas like like g Minor sonata op 49 no 1 or op 49 no 2. You should continue to do more Liszt consolations and start some Mozart sonatas like the one in C Major no 16! :)
@@acactus2190 I also saw chopin raindrop would it be manageable? Either way, I’m gonna explore the pieces that you mentioned. Thank you for your help and excellent video :)
Idea: do a video of just mr incredible becoming uncanny to Beethoven songs, like start with moonlight sonata first movement to appasianata 3d movement.
Okay what is actually going on in "Stump Solo: Thomas" though, it looks and sounds to be some kind of joke but I can't be certain - can someone explain?
Stump was a weird guy because he didn’t follow the “general” way of composing, and produced many satire works that are impossible. And yea, his “Solo for Piano” is a real work that is played by actual people.
I wonder, where does rush E place in all of this? From my lack of understanding of being a pianist, I would have to guess it's no where near the last music pieces.
rush E is a meme piece that’s impossible to play. And if you take the version that is playable(which is normally what you see when actual people play rush E), then the piece is actually pretty easy; and wouldn’t even be considered challenging for the average classical pianist.
@@jpocallens6776 Oh I see. Thank you for letting me know what Rush E actually is! Thank you very much! One last thing, do you really think it's impossible to play it, or the most skilled of pianists can?
@@Jennynan09 Oh! I see. 😆 I didn't know that. Just to gauge it, about how many hands can the best of the best almost have? Like let's say the best can almost play as if he/she has four hands
his hands immortal, that's why he composed his extremely virtuosic etudes, and freaking re-wrote the last movement of the alkan symphony mvt 4 to play again
I’ve played the finale, and it’s horrendously difficult. It requires difficult hand contortions, and clarity. But in case the finale isn’t difficult enough, I talking about the entire symphony, which top 5 in Allan’s hardest pieces imo.
Not really, the espagbole is around the same level as Liszt’s Beethoven transcription of the 9th symphony according to many. Sorabji 5 sonata is pretty much universally agreed to be the hardest piano piece ever written, Barrett Tract is a close second. And yes, Hamelin etudes are pretty hard, but I don’t think I put it unreasonably high.
What's the criteria used to rank pieces? There's so many things to take into account for this, like number of notes, accidentals, tempo, phrasing, techniques, dynamics, harmonies, rhythms, time signatures, and much more. One piece could look easy but be extraordinarily difficult and another could look impossible, but be substantially easier.
Probably the hardest piece for me to play would be the etude in thirds. I can't coordinate the muscles in my hand to play clean thirds for some reason ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
