Pick your favourite...

[amelialw]

Chopin Etude! and explain why.

[pianistimo]

i haven't played them all - so i picked opus 10 #4 which i have played and learned some techniques how to play efficiently so my hands don't get so tired and sore.  as i see it - they're all one and the same.  etudes.  exercises.  not really like ballades, or scherzos, or even preludes and waltzes.  i don't find the same excitement with them and am learning them out of necessity.  as far as i can tell - they help you reach those outer limits of piano playing without explaining why.  now, if you take one of these and expand upon it - like godowsky - you might have something.

[ahinton]

You do not include the Trois Nouvelles Études, for whatever reason, but my answer (and I am not even a pianist) is "all of them", for they are - even now, I feel - the "New Testament" of keyboard writing.

Go on, Susan; tell me that I am being sacrilegious in so saying!...

Best,

Alistair

[burstroman]

I like the more introspective etudes, e.g. the 3 posthumous works, the op.25 #7 and op. 10 #6. Personally, I consider posthumous #1 one of his great works.  I like the long phrases.

[clhiospzitn]

I picked these, even though I love so much more than 5 of them:

- op. 10 no. 3 - one of the most beautiful melodies I've ever heard; even Chopin thought so.

- op. 10 no. 10 - a bright, lively but underplayed piece; I love the modulations to E and A major in it.

- op. 10 no. 12 - ah, the Revolutionary ... beautiful, tormented, and unforgettable.

- op. 25 no. 11 - the fury and power of the Winter Wind is wonderful to me.

- op. 25 no. 12 - the Ocean etude has a dramatic, passionate power that few piano pieces can match.

Runners up would most likely be the op. 10 no. 1, op. 10 no. 4, op. 25 no. 1, op. 25 no. 6, and op. 25 no. 9.