Top 10 Most Difficult Piano Pieces 

Now for the hardest pieces that sound like actual feces: Barlow Cogluotobusletismesi Barrett Tract Bussotti Pour Clavier Cage Etudes Australes Cognizetti Pentaphonic Etude Diaz-Infante Solus Finnissy all.fall.down. Finnissy Solo Concerto No. 4 Flynn Trinity Fox Twenty-Four Etudes Fox Sonata No. 2 Hoban When the Panting Starts Martino Pianississimo Rzewski "The Road" Scelsi Action Music Skalkottas 32 Piano Pieces Sorabji Sequentia Cyclica Super "Dies Irae" ex Missa pro Defunctis Sorabji Sonata No. 5 "Opus Archimagicum" Sorabji Symphonic Variations Stockhausen Klavierstucke X Xenakis Evryali Xenakis Sieben Klavierstucke Xenakis Synaphai Yim :[ten]dril Zimmermann Wunsterwanderung

Isn’t it funny that La Clochette (S. 420) starts at 4:20 in the video? I’m probably the only one who noticed that 😂

there isnt really a "hardest/difficult" piano piece, but in terms of technical difficulty these are incredibly challenging. in any case, nice list -- and its nice to see alkan and mereaux on it

Nice List!

finally an ACTUALL "hardest piano pieces" list that is not a list full of overplayed pieces

WHEN RONDO FANTASTIQUE IS 10th THE LIST WILL BE HARDER

nice list thanks for not putting in the flight of the bumblebee

My thoughts on the video: On Alkan honestly I think his hardest or one of them is op 39 no 1, comme le vent. Has very weird technique at extreme speeds I haven't seen many reach. Glad you used Liszt S 140 instead of the simplified versions :) On Mereaux, I'm quite a fan of him and I did a lot of research on his music. I'd say Bravura deserves to be on the top 3, not the scherzo 45. I'll talk more on that later. On la clochette I just want to note that this midi had some extra octaves that makes it impossible at some points. Hamelin etudes are pretty hard. I love how in that one he mixed a bunch of alkan pieces and it all made sense! On Le Preux a virtuoso(Arthur Cimirro, who is also recording Méreaux complete 60 etudes!) said that he doesn't get impressed with Alkan that much, mainly because sometimes people exagerate the speeds. He said "(Several people claim the difficulties of playing some Alkan pieces in the “right tempo” and it seems they never checked the real “right tempo” as written in the score - for example, as in “Le Preux”, where “dans un bon mouvement” and “carrément” do not means “presto” in any sense!) " On honorable mentions you put Don Juan. That remembers me of the tons of transcriptions Liszt made that could possible get in there. Alkan le chemin de fer pretty hard as well. One pianist said that chopin prelude 16 is almost just as hard. Alkan scherzo I have seen some saying it is one of the easiest out of op 39. Honestly I agree, many of the pieces you put before it could easily get its place. Ah Mereaux 45, here we go. So the thing is Méreaux gave it no tempo marking, the MIDI always exaggerate on that. The marking is "Vivacetto", which could mean 2 things: Either as fast as possible(seems like this meaning of vivacetto was lost) or just somewhat lively. But in any case there is a pianist who played it very well. His channel here: ru-vid.com/show-UCZegvLktzFN-QRnibDS6NzQ I would say that Méreaux 24, 15, 20, 60, 37, 58 and probably some others are harder than 45. And finally in top 1 the typical etude 4. Its the same thing as méreaux 45. Liszt gave no tempo marking, MIDI and synthesia "tutorials" exaggerate it to an extreme. The only tempo marking for it was by an editor, which is iirc about just 5% faster than petrov playing, so its completely doable. Btw just a curiosity: Did you know méreaux actually composed not only 60, but 97 etudes? 60 on his op 63, on a later opus he made a Romance etude and iirc his opus 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119 are each one of them a bundle of 6 etudes composed in a specific style. I can only hope one day we will have the sheets for them :/ Currently there isn't, they are all just sitting there in a library in france. After all I think its very hard to choose the hardest pieces, there are too many pieces that are very hard each one with their own difficulties.

0:05 Franz Liszt - Rondo Fantastique "El Contrabandista" 0:57 Alkan - Allegretto alla barbaresca 1:58 Liszt - Etude d' Éxecution trascendante "Original Campanella etude" 3:07 Mereaux - No.24 "Bravura" from 60 etudes 4:20 Liszt - Grande fantaisie de bravoure sur la Clochette 6:05 Hamelin - Etude n.4 D' Áprès Alkan

As someone who has played both Le Preux and Scherzo Diabolico, I have to say Le Preux is by far more difficult. Playing the whole piece at midi speed is a workout and near impossible to hit every correct key. When learning Scherzo Diabolico after I learned Le Preux it was very noticeably easier and only took me a few days to play the most difficult section, while learning the Le Preux octaves took several months.

IN MY OPINION i think tht ALKAN'S LE CHEMIN DE FER on MIDI actually sounded very good and crisp.....in contrary to other pieces on MIDI

Those massive chords in the s140 no. 4 etude makes me wonder if Liszt even had to jump in La Campanella (the popular one) considering he can reach those massive chords

Damn, when it started on El Contrabandista...

its always nice to see la campanella excluded from the list

Here are some that I think could've made the list depending on who you ask (Only Solo Piano Pieces): -Beethoven/Liszt-Symphony no. 9: aside from how insanely hardest some of the movements are on their own the whole Symphony is like 50 minutes which would require incredible stamina. -Godowsky- Passacaglia in B minor -Godowsky- Ignis Fatuus (study on Chopin Opus 10 no.2): A very short piece however, the whole piece is played as a 3 against 4 polyrhythm and aside from technique already being extremely challenging, achieving proper voicing for some of the melodic lines in the left hand with your 4th and 5th fingers seems damn near impossible with everything else going on. -Godowsky Study no 36. on Chopin Opus 25 no.6: Rapid double thirds in the left hand, enough said. -Liszt- Mazeppa s.138 and s.137: They are slightly different but the both share the same absurd technique that makes them insanely difficult. I not even sure if it's humanely possible to play it with Liszt's 2-4 fingering for all the thirds while keeping a recognizable tempo. Easily one the hardest etudes Liszt wrote and it rivals the s.140 no.4 (that you put in the video) in unplayability. Liszt- s.700 Clochetter et carnaval de venise: another piece involving the La Campanella theme, probably harder than the s.420. Alkan- Scherzo Focoso Brahms- Paganini Variations. Hard variations on the theme from Caprice 24. -Hamelin Etudes 1 and 3 are on par with no. 4 I would say.

the hardest piece is Rondo Fantastique, because this piece was composed to be played in approximately 8-9 minutes.

But for difficulty in rhythmic interpretation, it is 2nd movement of Ravel piano concerto (2 hands), and best are by Nicole Henriot (Henriot-Schweitzer).

4:15 whats he playing?

i also think tht NICOLAI MEDTNER with his 14 SONATAS absolutely should be included, at least his MONUMENTAL NIGHTWIND SONATA OP. 25 NO.2 AT 30 MIN + , AND IT TAXES TO THE FULL THE PERFORMERS SKILLS THROUGHOUT ALL MOVMENTS...

Liszt, Alkan, Liszt, Alkan, Liszt, Alkan, Liszt, Ravel, Alkan, Hamelin, Mércaux, Liszt 😁

This list is nice but you could better up top 3. 1) Le Preux and Solo Piano Concerto are generally accepted to be harder than Scherzo Diabolico (Solo Piano Concerto being the hardest). 2) The 1838 version of the Paganini Etude isn't the hardest piece ever written, it isn't, in fact, even Liszt's hardest (the true hardest piece being Beethoven/Liszt 9th symphony transcription). 3) Amédee Mereaux's 45th Etude doesn't deserve it's ranking, but it's harder than Le Preux though...there's no specific metronome for the piece so it can be played at the fastest pace one can play it at. Playing it at MIDI's speed is neither possible nor plausible. Same applies to S.140/4b. Otherwise, very good list! :)

What about Czerny Op. 365 Etude 2? Also, please make a part 2

finally, an legit video

What about every single sorabji an Mereaux piece?

2:00 Wait, this is really La Campanella? Is it any arrangement?

i was gonna learn all of these but is the hamelin etude even possible with 2 hands i guess ill put my progress here 30th aug 2022 i have been playing piano for 8 months, maybe even less than that because i started playing seriously like 3 months ago keep in mind that ill learn honorable mentions aswell currently learning scarbo im using my reference for scarbo with rousseaus video ive learnt the first 2 minutes of scarbo somewhere in between October-november: got some good progress and stopped scarbo started learning mereaux-bravura somewhere in November: good progress on bravura uploaded a video 10th of Dec: I think bravura is easier than scarbo I mean, the technique is pretty difficult, but scarbo is literally like 9 mins of pain 6th of February: Broke my thumb nail while playing mereaux - bravura 8th of February: bravura became way easier, i think I'm about 70% done. also I started le chemin de fer and about 30% done with it. but I'm getting pretty demotivated more than a year later (june 1st): i’m back! i started learning no.9 (allegretto alla barbaresca) it’s probably gonna be done in a month or so.

nice

3:07 How much hand crossing and staccato with chords did Mereaux made in Etude op 63 no 24??? Cuz that guy is a beast at piano

Well you cant really say that this or this piece is the hardest. There are so much hard pieces that no one talks about like Sherzo alla Napolanita by Mereaux or Galopp in a minor by Liszt and so on…

hamelin etude? what?

who was the guy playing in most of the vids??

What about mazeppa by liszt?

Nice Lis(z)t

nice liszt!

So OG Campanella hmm nice choice

The most difficult peice must have hard techniques and good melody

a hectic day number 1 2 le preux3 godowsky etude 10 no 3/ 10 no1/ study 47 combined etudes. this my top 3 different composers

Xenakis Herma

What about romancero espagnol by Liszt?

I dont think you can really put scarbo and don juan in the same category lmao

9:44

These pieces are difficult but definitely not the most difficult.

no, a certain reminiscence makes don juan a piece of easy pie

Tbh etude no.4's difficulty is suuuper overestimated in my opinion. I'd say it's easier than el Contrabandista

Sup, I enjoy your content. Do you play piano?

7:46 le Preux is probably the hardest because no one on earth played it properly and at marked tempo while I heard some play Liszt Transandantal Pagani number 4 like Nicolai Petrov.

Xenakis - mists Hilarious math music

I don't know why you guys prefer midi files over real perfromances

S.700a/ii harder than S.140 and S.420

Why I think that Le preux isn't that hard ? I think it's easier then Chopin ballade no.4

Rachmaninoff Sonata No.2 1913 Version and Godowsky Passacaglia are harder than Gaspare de la Nuit

13:50 O_O Um WHAT

14:07 i expect this before watching video lmao

Lucrèce Borgia > Don Juan

13:44 LittleHands liked it.

La campanella ?

Allegreto alà barbaresca Is harder!

Hmmm no Chopin etudes?

famosin

Wilde jagd☠️💀☠️

Bruh where ravel and rachmaninoff balakirev.

Liszt- Gallop in a minor should also be here

All these are still far from top most difficult. Where are Sorabji Ligeti and Messiaen?

Nice list, but for me F.Liszt can' t be on 1st place. I think on 1st place have to be only Alkan' s piece "Les preux" or maybe grande sonate

ay no islamey?

Lizst - s.218 Galop A minor is surely the most difficult piece by him, i mean, with the correct tempo it's incredibly difficult

Yeahhh, Bravura more harder then Le Preux

1. Liszt - Etude 4 1838 2. Liszt - Etude 6 1838 3. Liszt - La clochette 4. Mereaux - Etude 45 5. Liszt - Spanish Fantasy 6. Liszt - Reminiscences de Norma 7. Xenakis - Mists 8. Xenakis - Evryali 9. Liszt - Etude 3 1838 10. Brahms - Paganini Variations 11. Liszt - Romancero Espagnol 12. Alkan - Piano Concerto 13. Rachmaninoff - Piano Concerto 3 1st mvt 14. Liszt - Rondo Fantastique 15. Liszt - Spanish Rhapsody 16. Liszt - Niobe Fantasy