Hammerklavier vs. Ballade No. 4 vs. Rach 3

[pmz310]

I want you opinion on whihc is harder out of the 3

[thierry13]

Hrm the hammerklavier and Rach 3 are comparable but the fourth ballade is definitely not comparable to the other 2 in terms of difficulty.

[desordre]

Hrm the hammerklavier and Rach 3 are comparable but the fourth ballade is definitely not comparable to the other 2 in terms of difficulty.

Agreed 110%
 Best!

[dnephi]

The Hammerklavier's demands are different from the Rachmaninoff and in some ways greater than the concerto.  It's not as pianistic as the Rachmaninoff by any means, either, so performance is far from comfortable.  I saw Stephen Beus perform the Hammerklavier live, and while it may have been his highly individual style of playing, the writing was overwhelmingly virtuosic to the point of near unintelligibility in the fugue.  The fugue is not only close to impossible, but its devices and construction are so sophisticated that an adequate performance requires an enormous quantity of cerebral involvement.

The fourth ballade is extremely difficult but not remotely comparable to the other two.

[mikey6]

How exactly is the ballade not comparable? Again with these pointless difficulty threads!
Having just played it, I can say that it is incredibly hard!

[pmz310]

Again with these pointless difficulty threads

gotta love 'em bro lol

[desordre]

 Dear Mikey:
What would life be without some pointless stuff?
By the way, poor trombones...
Best!

[lohshuhan]

all these are difficult in their own right.  it all depends on where your strength lies. 

[etudes]

I played ,learned hammerklavier and the 4th ballade (worked a bit on rach 3rd but never take it seriously) and i found op.106 much harder.
First of all..it is almost like 4 times longer  so physically is already completely different
2nd the fugue is really hard to get it done (and memorize)
3rd Hammerklavier takes much more time before u dare enough to program it  (i would even say both technically and musically) the 4th ballade has some difficult spots (technically speaking) but u can get it done in a week or 2 but it takes me forever to get the fuge of op.106
the 4th ballade came quite fast to me and it is pretty straight forward (quite easy to memorize compare with op.106)

[lostinidlewonder]

Burn all these threads about whats harder, its just useless information.

[retrouvailles]

Burn all these threads about whats harder, its just useless information.

SECONDED

If I were moderator, these would all be gone.

[general disarray]

I want you opinion on whihc is harder out of the 3

But why?  It's all relative anyway.

[retrouvailles]

But why?  It's all relative anyway.

It's like people get sexual pleasure out of creating these threads. It happens all the time.

[gerryjay]

It's like people get sexual pleasure out of creating these threads. It happens all the time.

  and probably more pleasure answering since the debates are endless...