Most Impressive Piano Solo Piece for the Layman

[raresideeffect]

I'm looking for suggestions on a particular piece that would have the biggest "wow" effect when played in front of a group of regular people. I would think brevity is important, as anything over 5 minutes and the crowd might get restless, have a melody that would be somewhat familiar, and definitely be flashy. The only necessity is perceived difficulty.

My vote would go for the Horowitz transcription of Wedding March and Variations. You have jumps, giant chords, and it's fast. Flight of the Bumblebee is a big crowd pleaser too.

[soliloquy]

Bowen Toccata Op. 155


I promise.

[dnephi]

Cziffra Bumblebee? 
Rubinstein Valse-Caprice?
KAN?

[invictious]

Flight of the Bumble Bee, trans Rachmaninov
Never fails.

Or you can try Moszkowski's Etude no.6 in F major, brilliant piece. The black key etude by Chopin also works too.

You can also try a fancy version of Tetris theme, worked for me once.

[ganymed]

this thread will help you out !


https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php/topic,942.msg13370.html#msg13370

[phillip21]

The suggestions made so far are excellent.  If you want something more technically approachable than some of the pieces suggested, you could try Edward MacDowell's 'Ungarisch' from his 12 Studies Op. 39.  Points in its favour:

- it is only four pages long and if (like me) you are a poor memoriser and use a score, there is a do-able page turn in the middle;
- it combines a lot of bravura effects in a short space of time;
- it even has a 'Jaws' effect about 2/3 of the way through.

To give an idea of how it goes, I have put a video of it on my Youtube channel (sorry the light level was lower than I normally use, but the sound is OK): 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeQEbLaM9K4
And you can download the score of all the studies free from:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeQEbLaM9K4