Why Islamey or Gaspard de la nuit?

[mitch24]

I need your help to understand why these pieces are seen as the most difficult pieces in the piano repertoire (exluding modern avant-garde).

My teacher plays both of these pieces, and thought I'm nowhere near ready to play these, watching him play leads to believe that they arent so complicated.. Musically or mechanically.  The reason why I'm saying this is because when he plays some other pieces, namely one thats called Fantasy on La Campanella or something to that affect (its not the original or Busoni editions of the Campanella, its something else considerably more brutal), he's mentally and physically exhausted after completing the piece. No he's not old and out of shape, I believe he's 22 and very active.

I hope some of you undersdtand what I'm trying to say..
So how are Islamey & Gaspard de la nuit monsters?

Please help me understand, I'm not a 10 yeard old wanting to create a top 10 list of the most difficult pieces, I'm rather a 19 year old girl trying to understand the sense in this non exhaustive list that seems to be generally accepted by musicians.

PS, my teacher is on this board, hope this doesnt blow my cover.. 

 

[Waldszenen]

I'm not the type of person who'll give you a ten page philosophical thesis on why those two pieces are considered difficult - I'll save it for one of the Piano Forum veterans.


But I'll tell you this much - those two pieces are hard, yes, but I feel safe in saying that they're not two of the most difficult piano works of all time. And of course, difficulty is subjective.

[nanabush]

If you're wondering why their so difficult, give it a shot just try... then you'll see the pile of technical difficulties throughout.

[classico]

I know for sure both pieces are technically very challenging, but do not come close to some extreme difficulty shown in other piano works, in my opinion. I've been working on some of Balakirev's works, and Islamey is not as notoriously difficult as people say. The mastery of octaves and double notes will make the learning process easier. Plus just playing it will prove physically taxing, too. I haven't actually played any of Gaspard de la nuit, but just looking at the score tells me they're not for the faint at heart. If you want to go onto a higher level, these are great pieces to learn. But, it is important not to learn these pieces just for the sake of difficulty. The notion of difficulty is vert subjective, as well. Actually many seemingly less difficult pieces get me more often.           

[Skeptopotamus]

I love lamp, I love lamp... I love lamp!

OMG I'm going to kill you with a trident!

[burstroman]

You all will hate me, but although I admire "Gaspard", (especially Ondine) I'm more interested in playing, say Mozart's Rondo in A minor well, and hearing a conservatory applicant play the Mozart with understanding.

[dikai_yang]

if you don't know why is gaspard difficult, go to scarbo, try to play it through
that's the kinda thing where you can't even sightread through at the slowest speed
if you say, 3rd movement is exceptionally hard... that's okay, go to 2nd movement...
though slow, you'll find it extremely difficult to read the music "correctly"...
if you say, neh... something this slow is not for me, that's okay, go to odine...
try the first page specifically at "ppp"...
then... you'll realize... oHH... yeah... it's very very difficult
---
these are only several of the most simple things that make th piece difficult...

[moose_opus_28]

It's different for different people.  For some reason, I can play double notes easily.  I can play these "difficult" double note etudes with comparatively little effort.  Then, my left hand can't play fast.  It just refuses to move very quickly.  So, left hand intensive etudes give me fits.

And Gaspard is certainly a monster technically...but no, it probably isn't the hardest to manage musically.

[thorn]

as other people have said, it's very subjective- im guessing the overall labelling of these two pieces as technical nightmares by so many people has just lead to the common belief that this is so.

i cant say anything about Islamey, having not even seen or heard the music in passing, but personally, i find some of the pieces im learning at the moment on the ABRSM grade 8 list harder than Gaspard. i'm just generally able to play modern french music with ease, but find anything earlier than Chopin a nightmare.

as for Gaspard, anyway, i find Ondine and Scarbo so much easier than Le Gibet. i admit Scarbo is a bit tricky, but give me that over Bach any day.

[etudes]

i once learnt islamey but i didnt finish it up to speed
btw i find that is not really difficult as i expect before i learn
but it takes time to learn
now i can play it quite good (almost up to speed) but i never brave enough to say i can play it
for gaspar de la nuit i dont even want to learn this until i mastered all chopin etudes and liszt etudes first
btw my teacher also play this 2 pieces (do we have the same teacher lol.) i think every teacher in conservatory or music university must be able to play this 2 pieces well.
ps.try balakirev sonata too!.

[nanabush]

I keep trying le gibet, but there's a part on like the second page where it's crazy chords in both hands slowly coming into the middle octave of the piano!!  I can't get those chords, and I always stop there, and it's so hard with the droning B flat in the background GAA it's scrambling my brain!