The Ultimate Test Piece

[comme_le_vent]

What would you consider to be the ultimate piece to test as many techniques and capabilities as possible - in just one single piece?

and i dont mean collections of pieces eg chopin etudes - i mean things like liszt's sonata and alkan's concerto for solo piano.

the best piece i have come across is godowsky's passacaglia - a 20 minute long theme and variations piece which contains just about every kind of technique possible on the piano, also very contrapuntal and texturally complex - and also simply a great piece of music which is very challenging to interpret.

can anyone beat that?

[rachlisztchopin]

I plan on eventually composing a piece that beats that lol (good luck to me) I already have outlined some ideas but im not going to do it until im in a conservatory or something so i am at my top composition stage...im just a beginner now

[comme_le_vent]

until we all hear your masterpiece - are there any pieces that already exist???

[comme_le_vent]

what about bernhard, with his immense knowledge of the piano literature?  

[liszmaninopin]

Few here have probably even heard of them, but I'd say Violette's Sonatas-any of them really, but six especially, cover it all.  #6 is about 23 pages long, very fast, with huge jumps, quickly changing chords, ultra fast runs, octaves, and just about any other technical complication I can imagine.  If you can believe it, I'd say his Sonata Five might even be harder.  To tell you the truth, in the standard repertoire, I'd say Ravel's Scarbo covers most of the techniques, and any of the more difficult and substantial concertos would.

[comme_le_vent]

one of the purposes of this post was actually to find a piece that i would actually learn.
one that would improve virtually every area of my pianistic technique, aswell as being a great piece.

what style is violette? i wouldnt suppose he is a romantic?
if not, im also looking for more of romantic style piece - like the ones i previously mentioned.

i am particularly interested in theme and variations - they generally use very varied techniques throughout their courses.

[liszmaninopin]

Violette would be contemporary, at some points his music can be somewhat Romantic, but he uses more dissonance than most Romantic composers did.

If Romantic is what you want, though, maybe you could try Ornstein's Sonata 4.

Two Romantic themes and variations that come to mind are Rachmaninoff's Variations on a Theme of Chopin and the same composer's Variations on a Theme of Corollini.
The Chopin especially would offer a good variety of challenges, I've never actually played it, but the score looks intimidating enough.

[Hmoll]

Messiaen - "Vingt Regards."