Top 10 Hardest Chopin Pieces for Piano

Fresh off the Chopin Competition (and closing in on Halloween), here’s a video that dives into 10 of the hardest piano works written by Chopin. Since the performer and piece descriptions were too long for the Youtube description, they have been moved to the comments where it will be pinned. Turn on subtitles for additional informal commentary! Chopin difficulties: Apart from the inherent virtuosity in most Chopin works, the song is central to Chopin’s oeuvre. Every phrase, no matter if it is a long lyrical passage or a series of fast runs, must be shaped in a way that follows a natural singing line (something that Cortot and Rubinstein particularly excelled at). The technical difficulties in the Etudes themselves comprise of essentially all of the required techniques in Chopin’s hardest major works (arpeggios, scales, octaves, double notes, etc.) as well as the major works in later Romantic composers, especially Rachmaninov. Timestamps: 10. Etude (7) 0:00 Gyorgy Cziffra 1:08 Evgeny Kissin 9. Scherzo No.4, (7) 1:36 Beatrice Rana 2:17 Ivo Pogorelich 8. Etude No.6 (7 ) 2:58 Josef Lhevinne 3:29 Vladimir Ashkenazy 4:01 Mikhail Pletnev 7. Ballade No.2, (7 ) 4:30 Ivan Moravec 5:12 Evgeny Kissin 6. Polonaise-Fantaisie, (7 ) 5:59 Eliso Virsaladze 7:09 Rafał Blechacz 5. Piano Concerto No.2, (7 ) 8:06 Alfred Cortot 8:58 Vladimir Ashkenazy 9:31 Krystian Zimerman 4. Piano Concerto No.1, (7 ) 10:02 Artur Rubinstein 11:09 Krystian Zimerman 3. Ballade No.4, (7 ) 12:15 Sviatoslav Richter 12:51 Krystian Zimerman 13:29 Seong-jin Cho 2. Sonata No.2, (7 ) 14:07 Ivo Pogorelich 14:59 Sergei Rachmaninov 16:01 Maurizio Pollini 1. Sonata No.3, (8) 17:24 Emil Gilels 19:15 Percy Grainger 19:53 Dinu Lipatti 20:27 Maria João Pires Honorable mentions: Etude , 10/2, 10/4, 25/8, Prelude , Sonata No.1, Variations Op.2, Allegro de Concert, Ballade No.3, Ballade No.1 Patreon link: Help me afford food