Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Rachmaninoff vs. Chopin vs. Liszt?

As far as technical difficulty is concerned, I'm curious as to how you would rank these pianists. Most challenging works to least challenging (Not to belittle any one of them, this is stricktly curiosity).

I would rank them:

1. Rachmaninoff
2. Liszt
3. Chopin

How about you.

I'd say about the same.

In what really mattered to him, Rachmaninoff was by far the best auto mechanic.

I'd agree. Curiously, it lines up in order of hand size, largest (Rachmaninoff) to smallest (Chopin).

I think it's more difficult to play Liszt well...but at that point, I think we're arguing semantics.

yeah id say
1.liszt
2 rachmaninov
3 chopin

Liszt
Chopin
Rachmaninov

Speaking of hand sizes, is it true that Rachmaninoff could reach a 14th? I've heared this a few times and am not positive if it's true.

Rachmaninoff
Liszt
Chopin

I've also have heard that Rachmaninoff could reach a 14th but I'm also nut sure if it is true.

My Dad's got absolutely HUGE hands (that he didn't quite pass on to me), and he can comfortably span an eleventh. A twelfth is his stretch limit. And I've seen him put his hand in a gorilla's hand print, and they were about the same size (except the gorilla's fingers were thicker). Then I've seen him put his hand in Andre the Giant's hand print, and it was dwarfed. So, there are some extraordinarily huge hands out there.

The most I've ever heard for Rachmaninoff, however, was a 13th (C to A).

1.Liszt
2.Rachmaninov
3.Chopin

He could do a 12th fairly comfortably and stretch a 13th.

I'd say liszt is a heck-of-a-lot more showy for sure, but as far as physical difficulty I have to hand it to Rachmaninoff.

You guys should start giving some examples of some of their difficult works.

Chopin may not have the hardest music to play out of these three, but he has the BEST music, followed by Liszt and then Rachmaninov.

Unfortunately, while "difficulty" is relatively objective with some subjective qualities (personal technical preferences), "quality" ("best/worst") is entirely a subjective matter.

Unfortunately, while "difficulty" is relatively objective with some subjective qualities (personal technical preferences), "quality" ("best/worst") is entirely a subjective matter.

Yeah, but Chopin is the most popular out of these three.

Best music I'd judge Chopin, Rachmaninoff, then Liszt.

As for who is more popular Liszt or Rachmaninoff I wonder, would be a good question. Maybe equal. But Chopin is definitely more popular than both of them I should think.

I'd actually be tempted to put Liszt ahead of Rachmaninoff, purely for the 1837 Transcendental Etudes, and the 1838 Paganini Etudes. Rachmaninoff wrote a lot of incredibly difficult material, but a lot of it is performed regularly.

I think Liszt is ahead of Rachmaninoff in terms of mass popularity purely for his Hungarian No 2 than for anything else. (aka- "Tom and Jerry")

But I'd put the Rhapsodies and Paganini Etudes up for the running right alongside Rachmaninoff's 2nd/3rd concerti and preludes.

In the "classical world" only, it's probably between the Hungarian No 2 and the C#m prelude for "most popular piece by either composer". But Rachmaninoff has the concerti category easily won...and by a long shot (because he's got the top two slots)...over the rest of the composing world (except maybe for Tchaikovsky's 1st and Beethoven's 5th "Emperor").

So, even then, there's a good deal of ambiguity. We'd need some sales information to decide definitively, and even then, if you take into account popularity separate from sales (as in, "customers happy with their merchandise"), that's a whole 'nother category.

1.Chopin
2.Liszt
3.Rachmaninov

of course.....