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Although I am aware that many musicians might find "greatesst" or "top ten" lists silly or inappropriate when applied to works of art, I have always found them interesting.Therefore, I am proposing the following question: What do think are the greatest piano pieces requiring only moderate technical ability ?
Here are my choices (in no special order):
(1) Debussey Preludes (both books but only about half of them would be relatively easy)
(2) Brahms Ballads Op. 10 and Piano Pieces Op. 116-119
(3) Chopin Mazurkas
(4)Mendelsohn - a few of the Songs without Words (like Duetto)
(5)Grieg Lyric Pieces (not in the class of the first three, but probably underrated)

So, what are your choices?

Pianoloverus:
Instead of "greatest" or "top-ten", why not just ask people which compositions they like that would fit the combined criteria of great musical compositions of only moderate difficulty?
The list would be far too long to even begin, I think.

It seems to me that pieces of moderate technical difficulty are often very difficult in terms of getting the right emotion and tone, and actually being able to present it in an interesting way....for example..traumorie ( i know i spelled it wrong) by schumann.. is one of the most famous peices in history, and a child could learn it...but its by no means an easy peice to make sound great... I have it on a number of recordins.. for example alfred brendal and vladimir horowitz... and horowitz is by far the better performance, bredel sounds boring by comparison.... theres often no room to hide in technically easy peices, which really makes them deceptively easy...

but the list anyways:

kinderzenen - schumann
two part inventions - bach
some of the shorter peices by scriabin are wonderful.... but require a temperment that is difficult for even a very experienced player to achieve.
childrens corner - debussy

I guess everyone has a different idea of what constitutes "moderate difficulty". As people have said, many pieces which aren't technically that demanding can be very tough to pull off. I find much Debussy falls into this category (and much of it is technically hard too.) What's really useful is pieces which sound harder than they are. Here's a few that fall into that category:

Beethoven Sonatas Op 10/1 1st movt, Op 14/1 3rd movt, Op 26, 4th movt

Chopin Fantasie-Impromptu Op 66, Prelude Op 28/22

Most Haydn sonatas

Schubert Impromptu Op 90/4 (aka D.899/4)

Brahms Rhapsody Op 79/2

Here is a piece of high dificulty and high speed: Lizst's Hungarian Raphsody #2, which is also a very entertaining piece.

eric satie's "gymnopedie"

At a recent concert at the Mannes International Keyboard Institute I heard a piece I'd add to my previously posted list- Mozart's Adagio in b minor (in a thrilling peformance by Victor Rosenbaum).

Talking about Mozart!

Let me second the Adagio in Bm, K.540

Rondo in D, K.485
Rondo in Am, K.551

These are technically friendly yet musically deep and demanding masterpieces, particularly Rondo in Am, K.551. One can spend a life time perfecting the innate musicality and expression.

Rondo in Am - I agree. Probably my favorite solo Mozart piano composition. Plus, as Andrew notes, this is non-typical Mozart in its emotional content. One of the most soulful-ish (probably not a real word)Mozart ever wrote - all works included.

[ July 27, 2001: Message edited by: Alex ]