Most impressive FFFF...

[Souza]

What are the  pieces with the most FFFFetc sound ever writing/composed for piano you know?

What recordings and pieces has an  impressive one?

Arrau impressed me with suddently and brief  crescendo FFFs  in Liszt Transcendental Studies.

{}s Pedro

[pianistimo]

the 1812 overture for piano?  is there such a thing?

hungarian rhapsodies played by a hungarian.

bartok concerto for two pianos and percussion.

[jeff]

i've seen charles ives scores which go up to about "ffffffff" (and down to "pppppp" etc)

[brewtality]

The Bortkiewicz concerto 1 cadenza goes from sFFFF to pp in 2 bars. Stephen Coombs plays it as F (barely). Disgraceful. 

[rob47]

Horowitz's reading of rachmaninov's 2nd sonata. I've never seen the score, but that insane cresendo of chord tremolos which end the third movement -probably Ho's idea- I think goes beyond FFFF.

[pita bread]

Cziffra's Liszt Totentanz

Comme's Lesson in FFFFFFFFF playing

[donjuan]

Rachmaninoff's first sonata

ill ssecond cziffra's totentanz

and for some reason I like the first and 3rd movements of scriabin's 1st piano concerto for big buildups.

Berlioz's Symphony Fantastique (the 4th and 5ht movements) has some real thunder too.

[allthumbs]

i've seen charles ives scores which go up to about "ffffffff" (and down to "pppppp" etc)

When you think about it, what does it mean?

[viking]

i've seen charles ives scores which go up to about "ffffffff" (and down to "pppppp" etc)

Hey do you have any online sheets to this?  Ive never seen anything beyond FFFF or pppp.  If not, whatever.  It sounds goofy.
SAM

[bearzinthehood]

Maybe not quite so much as what you guys are talking about, but measures 11-12 of the fourth movement of Beethoven's Op. 106 are thunderous and tasteful to my ears. ^_^

[allthumbs]

Hey do you have any online sheets to this?  Ive never seen anything beyond FFFF or pppp.  If not, whatever.  It sounds goofy.
SAM

As I was saying...

[Etude]

The ending of Sorabji's Organ Symphony no. 1   

[fiasco]

Horowitz's version of Liszt's Rakoczy March hits FFFF during the madness of the last few pages.

[alzado]

I wonder if this sort of foolishness is bad for the piano.

I say, never go louder than MF no matter what the score says.

[pita bread]

I wonder if this sort of foolishness is bad for the piano.

I say, never go louder than MF no matter what the score says.

weak.

[stevie]

I wonder if this sort of foolishness is bad for the piano.

I say, never go louder than MF no matter what the score says.

hahahaha, disgraceful if serious, hilarious if not

[pita bread]

hilarious if not

Par quote of the day :
'HAHAHHAAHHAHAHA BARELY'

[burobbi]

i suppose there are sections in scarbo in which i heard the pianist is supposed to go unimaginably loud.

and no one has ever played a proper sffff in rachmaninov's op. 3 no. 2 prelude. common prelude. almost overplayed. but all unsatisfactory. i want that kind of sound that even a concert hall with the worse acoustics and the worse piano can ring with the terror and bombastic chords of the sffff sections.

and beethoven can be loud but he cannot be loud enough. yup. hammerklavier is almost close to percussive in some of the textures but no, its not meant to be ffffffff. charles ives is abit crazy, so there. =P

[etudes]

check out ligetti etudes no.13 esp.in the end

[moose_opus_28]

Best loudness ever is the ending of Scriabin Poem of Ecstasy (I know the real name has french spelling).  In piano...I don't know.

[Etude]

Yep.

[dreamplaying]

What are the  pieces with the most FFFFetc sound ever writing/composed for piano you know?

What recordings and pieces has an  impressive one?

Arrau impressed me with suddently and brief  crescendo FFFs  in Liszt Transcendental Studies.

{}s Pedro

Instead I invite you to hear Lazar Berman version of the Liszt Trascendental Studies (Mazzepa in particular). Great contrast on pianos and fortes, clear, brilliant and impresive.

[musicsdarkangel]

for me, by far Horowitz's Rach - 2nd Sonata

[squigly]

a nice ff is at liszt's liebestraume nr.3

but the most impressive fff ive ever heard is chopins op.24 no.12 etude.

the end is so beautiful that i makes u want to smash the keyboard!!! 

[stevie]

true, i do that 

[thierry13]

a nice ff is at liszt's liebestraume nr.3

but the most impressive fff ive ever heard is chopins op.24 no.12 etude.

the end is so beautiful that i makes u want to smash the keyboard!!! 

Indeed, amazing fun ! 

[iumonito]

Prokofiev has a few candidates:

Second concerto, plenty of places, but specially the cadenza in the first movement.  I wouldn't be surprised if the hardest a piano has been hit in performance is Jorge Bolet playing this.

Pleanty of volume in the three war sonatas, perhaps the loudest moment the end of the 7th.

Third concerto, last variation of the second movement,

See, it is not only the individual notes, but the accumulation of sound.  You are supposed to really bang the @*&$ out of the piano at the end of Schumann's Paganini in Carnaval, but there is not as much accumulation of sound as in the examples above.  Beethoven writes il piu forte possibile in Op. 109, but that spot is not even the loudest part of that piece.

[moon12]

The ending crescendo of Volodo's Glinka Variations is monumental. It's fun to play too, because it's easy: https://www.zophras.utvinternet.com/Volodos_-_Variations_on_Ruslan_and_Ludmila_by_Glinka.pdf

(Go to page 9, bar 99)

[sonatainfsharp]

Dynamics are relative anyway, so the number of FFFF's means absolutely nothing.

[dmk]

Dynamics are relative anyway, so the number of FFFF's means absolutely nothing.

Totally agree, true its the build up to it.  The most impressive ffff's will come from a build up sound from soft.

BTW...ffffff in Roy Agnew's Dance of the Wild Men