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Thread age is irrelevant when it comes to music and discussions of music/concepts of music.

I get it if it is a current trends or sports forum , but there's no harm bringing up old threads to continue good conversation about music.

I also do not understand the stigma with reviving old threads. I'd rather see people contributing to an old thread, instead of starting a new one on the same subject. So I'd like to contribute my own 2 cents.

I think that op 10 no 2 is easily the most difficult etude. Next is probably op 10 no 1, then op 25 no 11.

I've played through them all, but I know op 10 very well and have performed about half of op 10, usually in sets of 3 or 4.

The first one I learned was op 10 no 1, which was probably not a good move. I had no idea what I was doing and it was way beyond me. Good ones to start with are op 10 no 3, 5, 6, 8, 12 and op 25 no 2.

The etude from op 25 I actually know pretty well is no 6, the double thirds one, and honestly I think there are many etudes that are much harder. I actually think op 10 no 7 is quite a bit more difficult.

Resurrecting an old thread is fine as long as you don't expect the previous participants to respond to your contribution. In this particular thread only two (possibly three) of the original participants are still actively posting on PW.

Interesting discussion, however.

I have studied them all, performed them all, still do, and had problems with them all, but not anymore, so it's a long time ago that I had to conquer them. Still, the ones that keep me busy more than the others are: op.10 nrs.1/4/7 and op.25 nrs.4/6/11, this should be no surprise, but as a daily routine they give me some good and some bad mornings, but we remain friends, it's for life.