|
Welcome to the Piano World Piano Forums Over 3 million posts about pianos, digital pianos, and all types of keyboard instruments. Over 100,000 members from around the world.
Join the World's Largest Community of Piano Lovers
(it's free)
It's Fun to Play the Piano ... Please Pass It On!
|
|
75 members (bluebilly, accordeur, BillS728, aphexdisklavier, bobrunyan, anotherscott, AaronSF, apianostudent, 16 invisible),
2,119
guests, and
357
robots. |
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
Joined: May 2005
Posts: 2,230
2000 Post Club Member
|
2000 Post Club Member
Joined: May 2005
Posts: 2,230 |
"And I'm sure almost anybody can write a "cool" and musical virtuoso piece that no man can ever play..."
'Etude For Both Hands And The Tongue Op.171 in Three Different Keys and Time Signatures - containing three different Bach preludes playing simultaneously at the same time for most part of the piece', perhaps? There's a wealth of material out there for fanciful and challenging etudes of all kind to be composed...
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 6,972
6000 Post Club Member
|
6000 Post Club Member
Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 6,972 |
Anybody here try any Nancarrow?
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 1,124
1000 Post Club Member
|
1000 Post Club Member
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 1,124 |
Originally posted by Puckettmeister86: Who's this ALKAN fellow taken from alkan.org.uk: Son of a Jewish schoolmaster, Charles-Valentin Morhange was born on 30th November1813 in Paris, and took his father's first name, Alkan, as his last name. He entered the Paris Conservatoire at six, and made his concert debut at twelve. By the age of twenty-four he had become the leading French pianist, was friends with Chopin and admired by Liszt. By the mid 1830s he was living in the Square d'Orleans, where he kept two apartments, one above the other. After the publication of his Trois Grandes Études Op. 76 in 1838, he disappeared from public view for six years, emerging with the publication of a number of what would become typical Alkan pieces, including the world's first work to depict a railway train, Le Chemin de Fer. He also returned to the concert stage in April of 1844, and the audience for his first recital contained both Chopin and Liszt. From that time onwards, he suffered a number of disappointments, and he became increasingly reclusive. He (not unreasonably) expected to succeed his teacher Joseph Zimmerman as Professeur de Piano at the Paris Conservatoire, but was overlooked for this position in favour of his less talented contemporary Marmontel. He had the misfortune to publish his Grande Sonate Op. 33 (see excerpt below) and the twelve major-key studies in 1848,a time when many people of influence in the musical world had left Paris because of the social upheavals arising from the revolution. Following this, he again withdrew from public view, and re-emerged in 1857 with his magnum opus, Douze Études dans les tons mineurs Op. 39. Having withdrawn from the concert stage in 1855, in 1873 Alkan inaugurated an annual series of recitals devoted almost exclusively to the works of other composers. Unlike Liszt, Alkan did not use his pianistic talents to promote his own music, which is no doubt part of the reason it fell into obscurity after (and even before) his death in 1888. Alkan's Music Alkan wrote a large number of 'miniatures' for piano, such as his Esquisses, several volumes of Chants as well as a set of Préludes Op. 31 and the major works referred to above. Alkan's Sonatine Op. 61 is one of his finest pieces, compressing a wealth of originality and invention into just 18 minutes playing time. He also wrote several works for the organ or pedal piano, of which he was a masterly proponent. His major works are characterised by enormous technical difficulties, and great originality of conception. The Op. 76 studies were written respectively for the left, right and both hands re-united, the 'left-handed' form being later taken up by Scriabin, Ravel and Godowsky et al. The Op. 39 studies are gargantuan and unlike any other set of piano studies. Four of the Op. 39 studies together comprise a Symphony for solo piano, three studies comprise a Concerto (with both orchestra and soloist represented using different pianistic styles), and there is also an Overture and a set of variations- Le Festin d'Esope. The whole set, if performed complete, lasts around two hours. The Grande Sonate Op.33 has four movements, each representing a stage in a man's life, at 20,30, 40 and 50 years. The centre-piece of the work is the second movement, Quasi Faust, depicting a man at the height of his powers, being redeemed finally from the influence of the devil, following the exorcism of an eight-part fugue (see extract from the score reproduced below). Each movement is slower than the last, culminating in the final movement, subtitled Prométhée Enchaìne, which is marked Extrêmement Lent. This final movement grinds a desperate and desolate path, the tormented hero prevented from being released into death. Considering the piece was written when Alkan was 35, it turned out to be horribly prophetic for him. Originally posted by Skriabin: After watching the movie "Shine" (Great movie) I'd deffintaly have to say the Rach 3. ROFLMAO!... funny joke btw
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2002
Posts: 2,336
2000 Post Club Member
|
2000 Post Club Member
Joined: Sep 2002
Posts: 2,336 |
Some of Sorabji's stuff. Some of it that didn't get recorded is longer and harder than the OC.
Alkan is one of the hardest *decent* composers. His "Knight" etude and the left and right hand etudes are downright scary.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2002
Posts: 2,336
2000 Post Club Member
|
2000 Post Club Member
Joined: Sep 2002
Posts: 2,336 |
Originally posted by Puckettmeister86: As far as technical difficulty is concerned I'd have to say that Rachmaninoff is the King of the piano. I love it when people make absolute statements about something that they don't know a single thing about.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 374
Full Member
|
Full Member
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 374 |
i think its impossible to answer the question...like ive heard in the past in the forums...some technical skills are easy to some right from the get go, and they wont even have to practice something like octaves for example...and then some one else, could go through heck just to play octaves mediocre...so different pieces are at different complexity levels for different people...so its pretty d*mn hard to actually name the hardest piece out there...
...when the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace...
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 121
Full Member
|
Full Member
Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 121 |
In my experience, the hardest pieces ever written with the intention of being performed are Finnissy's Piano Concerto #4 and Richard Barrett's Tract.
One tier below those two, I would place such pieces as Xenakis' Evryali, and Flynn's Trinity. This, by the way, is the category in which I would put much of Sorabji's output, including the OC. Also, perhaps, the Boulez Second sonata and Ligeti's etudes #1 and 14
Below those, I would place stuff like the Alkan Concerto for solo piano, the Chop/God etudes, some of the harder Messiean regards, etc.
Finally, I would vote for Beethoven's sonata op. 106 as the most difficult piece in the standard solo concert repertoire. The Bartok 2 is the most difficult concerto with which I have personal exposure to the score (I've heard that Busoni is worse, but can't comment).
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 215
Full Member
|
Full Member
Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 215 |
Originally posted by valarking: Originally posted by Puckettmeister86: [b] As far as technical difficulty is concerned I'd have to say that Rachmaninoff is the King of the piano. I love it when people make absolute statements about something that they don't know a single thing about. [/b]Don't know a damned thing, that's for sure.
"Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is never enough for music." Sergei Rachmaninoff.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 70
Full Member
|
Full Member
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 70 |
Sorabji - Opus Clavicembalisticum
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 3,919
3000 Post Club Member
|
3000 Post Club Member
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 3,919 |
Originally posted by demosthenes: I heard there's someone in India with 6 finger-ed hands. I bet he could write some *impossible* music for us to play... Somewhere in Spain there's a town with genes for polydactyly in the population, with some people having seven fingers per hand. The extra digits, I believe, tend not to be well-formed.
There is no end of learning. -Robert Schumann Rules for Young Musicians
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 299
Full Member
|
Full Member
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 299 |
Inventio 11 BWV 782, by Johann Sebastian Bach in G Minor. now THAT'S a hard piece.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 1,124
1000 Post Club Member
|
1000 Post Club Member
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 1,124 |
I highly doubt it's the hardest in the world though.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Piano
by Gino2 - 04/17/24 02:34 PM
|
Piano
by Gino2 - 04/17/24 02:23 PM
|
|
Forums43
Topics223,408
Posts3,349,457
Members111,637
|
Most Online15,252 Mar 21st, 2010
|
|
|
|
|
|