Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Difficulty rating of these pieces

As a general rule of thumb, anything with water implied in its title tends to be either easy or hard. There's no middle way.

That's just the way water tends to be. Solid, liquid or gas. No semi-solid or semi-liquid.

So jardins is easy but reflets difficult?

Or vice versa.

But why can't someone just rank them?

"The hardest technique is the one you don't know how to play." So if you don't know how to play repeated notes, but can play fast scales, then the piece with repeated notes will be hard for you. Alternately, if you don't know how to play fast scales, but know how to play repeated notes, then that will be easy.

Some things are easier than others, but a lot depends on your background.

I can, but you won't agree.

Please rank them

As much time as you have wasted asking this question--- over,and over,and over again....

YOU COULD HAVE ASkED YOUR TEACHER. Then you would not get a 'one size fits all answer' but the answer that fits you.

Sonata No 17 Op 31 2 (Beethoven)
Barcarolle (Chopin)
Scherzo no 1 Op 20 (Chopin)
Ballade no 3 Op 47 (Chopin)
Sonata No 27 Op 90 (Beethoven)
Beethoven No 16 Op 31 1 (Beethoven)
Reflets dans l'eau (Debussy)
Nocturne Op 48 1 (Chopin)
Jardins Sous La Pluie (Debussy)
Pagodes (Debussy)

???
Sonata D 794 (Schubert)

So Op 31 2 is the hardest?

Yes But it is fun when People rate and show their different opinions

It is for me.

What everyone is trying to say, is that the differences of difficulty between pieces isn't always as straightforward and universally agreed upon by pianists, as, for example, "Rachmaninov's 3rd piano concerto is more difficult than Grieg's piano concerto".

E.g. works such as Beethoven's Waldstein and Appassionata sonata are so close to each other in difficulty, that an universal agreement on "which one is more difficult" is impossible, since variances between different pianist's technical strong points and weaknesses start to show.

For example, the octave glissandi in the coda of Waldstein never caused me any issues. Whereas I've heard of people who said they took 2 years(!) to perfect them. Similarly, there are some sections in some pieces which i've still not completely gotten under my fingers, but i've seen others breeze through them. They would then place that work much lower in a list of difficulty than me... very subjective.

Quite a simple concept. Difficulty lists are pointless. But I guess that's just a certain phase some people have :p

I know difficulty lists are pointless but they are fun! It is fun when People say what they consider the hardest and easiest etc

Ah-ha ... so that was the intent of your question! It seemed otherwise to me, and from what I can discern in everybody's reply here. Namely, that you were asking for help deciding. Don't you agree, it was a mistake not to make the above plain and clear in your OP? After all, everyone's been barking up the wrong tree, so everything they've graciously given time and thought to trying to guide you has been a waste of time - of your time as much as theirs.

I know... How would you rate these pieces?

I wouldn't rate them - I'd just play them. Piano music (actually, all music) is meant to be played, not rated.

It brings to mind a slogan by a certain footwear manufacturer: "These boots are made for walking". Of course they are. They are too tough to eat. Except when you're starving. I believe polar explorers once ate their boots, and survived to tell the tale.

(Nowadays, they just call for help if they're hungry and have run out of rations, and give their precise location with their GPS, so they can keep their boots on).

Also brings to mind the scene from 'Dead Poets Society'



I just had the devilish thought of students tearing pages out of RCM syllabuses.

Vid:
Thanks so much for sharing the Dead Poets Society link--- how appropriate!!!!

Haha, I loved that clip

You could use that same system (slightly modified) to rate programmatic pieces of classical music

Perfection (P) ?/100
Subject (S) ?/100

Bach - "Coffee" cantata: P=100; S=0
Balakirev - "Islamey": P=0; S=100
Ravel - "Gaspard de la Nuit": P=95; S=100
Verdi - "Rigoletto": P=95; S=95
Ligeti - His opera(can't remember the name) - P=30; S=0
Beethoven: Sonata 81a "Les Adieux": P=100, S=100
Liszt - Dante sonata: P=90; S=100

Cage - 4'33: P=0, S=0

Our own Polyphonist's latest masterpiece in the composer's forum - "A motorist chasing a rabbit down the street at high speed": P=0; S=0