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Here's a sample from Ligeti etude 14-A, which is so hard it hasn't been played by a human. The tempo marking is very precise, half-note = 105.



Also, I think it would be unfaithful to the score to play it quietly, but that might just be my own personal interpretation. Try playing a bit of it.

That's hard, but judging from the result, I think this "song" must be even harder:

I know that you know "song" is incorrect usage, so using it deliberately looks a lot like you are trying to troll the forum. We'll see how that goes....with luck, the thread will die a quick and relatively painless death.

And anyway, topics about "the most" whatever are inane by definition, since there is no way to determine "hardest", "greatest", "saddest", "best", etc. Yeah, I know, some threads of that sort get a lot of responses (including mine), but that doesn't mean they aren't stupid - they are.

Hideous.

As for the OP, we know my thoughts on that.

I'm almost spat out my cereal.

Check out 11:25 and on.

Good lord. How does someone that bad even get gigs and photo shoots?

Initially she bought them, having inherited a bundle.

Over time, people started attending her performances as campy events -- kind of like Tiny Tim two or three generations later.

My small backup auxiliary dog really sings better than that, though...

How on Earth could you listen long enough to know??

There are three established ways:

1) Be so good & ultra-talented that nobody, but nobody, can turn you down.
2) Be so bad & ultra-hopeless (but not so hopeless that all semblance of music is missing) that nobody, but nobody, can turn you down. It requires a total absence of self-awareness and self-criticism, or alternatively, an ability to delight in the irony of pocketing $$££€€ while being fully aware that the audience don't know you're playing for laughs (and money) .
3) Be totally unique that nobody, but nobody, can turn you down. Like Vladimir de Pachmann, who chatted and gave a running commentary while playing, and applauded himself or shouted 'Bravo!' when he played a tricky passage particularly well (or rather, better than normal for him) .

I think she just might have turned the Queen of the Night diurnal.

The hardest piece song in the world is that one, right there, that the pianist is having to play. Those are darn near unsafe working conditions.

Can we apply a few of those Ligeti "ffffff"s to the Jenkins' "performance"? He's got at least a few to spare, there.

I don't think there is any piano piece ever written that is harder to play. The etudes are famous for their extreme difficulty, so it's not just me here

The 14A etude does nothing for me, musically speaking. The only reason I think somebody would attempt it is because it's known to be Ligeti's "unplayable etude". I prefer to focus on what pieces have musical meaning to me, when judging whch pieces are the most difficult. Certainly the two most difficult pieces I ever hacked my way through were Ravel's Scarbo and the Carl Vine's first Sonata - and I did not do them justice, let me tell you!. Absolutely wretchedly difficult - but possibly not considered among the hardest. But there is also the difficulty of finding the best expression through such pieces. Difficulty isn't only about tempo and horrid finger combinations.

I could never get that section of the Ligeti Etude up to to all 8 fortes. The best I could do was 7 Fs so I had to give it up.

An old adviser once said that a particular (potential) goal was like learning to micturate through a straw: "It's a very difficult thing to learn, and once you've mastered it, you really haven't accomplished very much."

I clicked a random place in the video and happened to click there.

If the piano isn't broken by the end, you didn't do it right?

Playing ffffffff is easy. (Just hit it with a hammer).

It's playing pppppppp that's hard (Étude No.9)........

Ouch!!! I know someone who is the pianist equivalent of this woman.

I figured she was either very, very rich or was someone's beloved grandmother. In the latter case, I forgive her.