Chopin, Mozart, Beethoven or Debussy

[vovo]

I recon Chopin's music is amazing and intensly techniqual. But beethiven and mozart are also a bit hard. Who do you think is more harder to play

[pianohenry]

harder to play?! dont think anyone could generalise like that, they wrote such a huge amount of music and in different styles.

being in the romantic period chopin probably would have composed music especially for virtuoso, and maybe debussy too - a lot of their works are extremely challenging. I havent played enough mozart to know in general if his music is more difficult than the others. guess it depends on what sort of style people enjoy playing. id find it much easier to learn a chopin/debussy piece than mozart probably because i would enjoy playing it more and i would remember it more easily because im humming it all the time

[le_poete_mourant]

The Chopin Etudes are all about technique, and conquering the smaller skills that are necessary to a pianist.  They are possibly the most demanding, comprehenisve body of work in that sense.  (Others like Liszt wrote some very difficult etudes as well, but I think part of the thing about those etudes are that they require technique rather than refine or teach it.)  That said, Beethoven and Mozart require different types of technique than Chopin because their styles are completely different. 

[Waldszenen]

This poll is entirely subjective - for me, Debussy is the most challenging out of all those choices.

[arensky]

This poll is entirely subjective - for me, Debussy is the most challenging out of all those choices.

Yes. For me the answer is Beethoven.

[leucippus]

Unfortunately I'm just starting out and can't play any of them yet.

However, just from listening to them Chopin certainly sounds the most difficult to me. 

But I guess you can't really go by that.

I've actually been toying with the idea of getting my feet wet with some parts of Clair de Lune in my practice schedule.  It doesn't bother me if I can't learn the whole thing for a long time.  If I can master just a few parts of it I'll feel good about that and just view those parts as "exercises" or "etudes"

I was actually listening to some of the Chopin "etudes" today and I would love to learn three of them in particular.

I would like to learn etude #4 here: Chopin Etudes 1-6

And etudes #'s 9 & 12 here: Chopin Etudes 7-12

Seems to me that #12 is an actual piece?

All of these are extremely ambitious for me.  I'm way not there yet.

So what does everyone suggest?  From the above four which would be easier to tackle?

(midi files:)
Debussy - Clair de Lune
Chopin - Etude #4
Chopin - Etude #9
Chopin - Etude #12

I'm thinking Clair de Lune.

[nanabush]

What would be considered Debussy's hardest piece?  It couldnt be feux d'artifice, maybe an etude?

[debussy symbolism]

Greetings.

Debussy is marvelous, and many of his pieces require technique, but don't focus on it. Debussy's L'isle Joyeuse is very interesting, so are his preludes. All of Debussy is interesting.

[donjuan]

definitely chopin.  he seems to have designed a number of his works around technical challenges, such as a stretch between the 2 and 3 fingers

and you can have craptacular technique and still play Debussy very well, imo

[counterpoint]

and you can have craptacular technique and still play Debussy very well, imo

You don't like Debussy? 

I think, it is very very hard to play Debussy well, even with the best technique

[donjuan]

You don't like Debussy? 

I think, it is very very hard to play Debussy well, even with the best technique

actually, now that I remember how I struggled with Dr. Gradus Ad Parnassum, I think I'll retract my statement from the previous post, and say that Debussy, like any composer, requires a good technique to play well.  However, I dont think he himself came up with any great technical innovations. 

[debussy symbolism]

How about the Debussy etudes?

[Waldszenen]

actually, now that I remember how I struggled with Dr. Gradus Ad Parnassum, I think I'll retract my statement from the previous post, and say that Debussy, like any composer, requires a good technique to play well.  However, I dont think he himself came up with any great technical innovations. 

Hah, you struggled with one of Debussy's easier pieces and say he didn't come up with any great technical innovations... 

Personally I don't think that any other composers, other than Chopin and Liszt, contributed more to the piano than Debussy.

[nanabush]

I agree with Waldzsenen on Debussy's contribution, but Dr Gradus ad Parnassum is definately not one of his easiest pieces...

[canardroti]

I voted Beethoven because I find his music unpredictable to play. Especially his sonatas.