The Most Difficult Piano Composers

[chopin2256]

I'd like to know what great and DIFFICULT piano composers are out there from 1850's till present BESIDES Rachmaninoff, Liszt and Chopin.  Yes I know they are difficult....but I know them well.

No Mozart, no Brahms, no Beethoven.....Im looking for good difficult atonal or tonal music...non classical stlye.  I prefer tonal, but atonal can be interesting just to study for kicks.

Dont jump down my throat just because I asked for difficult piano composers.  I know how you all are, ive seen your responses to that kid that wanted to play the Rach3 at 3rd grade level.  Yeah I think its ridiculous too, because I am 95 percent sure he probably wouldn't even know how to READ the score, (there is much more to reading than just the notes) but maybe he was just curious!    

The reason I am looking for difficult piano composers is because i think its interesting to study very complicated piano scores.  I wouldn't be able to play it, but I can certainly read a score with no problem, (considering I'm strictly a piano composer) and learn from it.

[kiisaka]

It's interesting how this topic of "the most difficult" piano compositions come up so often.

It really depends on the pianist, doesn't it?  Some describe Ravel's Ondine being devilishly difficult, but it was a breeze for me, though I struggled with Scarbo.

However, one composer rarely mentioned is Alkan.  His Etudes, particularly the minor etudes, Op. 39 are very taxing.  His compositions make Liszt, Prokofiev and even Godowsky pale in comparison.

[Shagdac]

Hi Chopin2256,

I certainly don't think he is the MOST difficult, however I do believe most of his pieces are rather tricky. Have you taken a look at Louis Moreau Gottschalk? I find his music rather ahead of it's time, considering when it was composed. You might enjoy taking a look at some of his works. He's hardly ever mentioned, yet I think he's one of the best. If you do, let me know what you think.

Personally, I think Ravel, Prokofiev and Balakirev are more difficult than Rach and Chopin. I guess it's just the style of their music.

S

[liszmaninopin]

Well, if all you're looking for is a difficult composer, there are certainly plenty out there.  Godowsky, Alkan, and Henselt are in my opinion the most difficult tonal Romantic composers, roughly in that order.

If you go to the twentieth century, there is a vast pool of composers that difficult that their music borders on the physically impossible-or sometimes might just be impossible.  Here are a few well known names:
Sorabji
Xenakis
Ligeti
Boulez
Finnissey
Feinberg
and there are many more lesser knowns
Of course, there are the standard composers which can still be very difficult-Ravel, Bartok, Prokofiev, Ives, Barber, Busoni, Brahms, etc.

[matticus]

The most difficult piano piece I've come across is Richard Barret's Tracts, with Brian Ferneyhough's Lemma-Icon-Epigram a respectable second. You'll definitely find them interesting.

[matticus]

You can see the first few pages of Lemma-Icon-Epigram here: https://www.bmic.co.uk/collection/pdfs/6635w.pdf

[bet33]

"I'd like to know what great and DIFFICULT piano composers are out there from 1850's till present... besides Chopin... i know (him) them well..."

sorry, i just though this was funny, being that chopin died in 1849...

have a look at RZEWSKI, try to track down his PEOPLE UNITED WILL NEVER BE DEFEATED score...

great study in manipulation of a theme, as well as "microtonality"... (i dont agree with this word)

[littlechopin]

Try "Gaspard de la nuit" of Ravel, still enough tonal.
About atonal music, I don't like it very much...

[donjuan]

I heard Alkan is very difficult..but I havent yet played any so,
bleh..
donjuan

[sharon_f]

Olivier Messiaen's masterpiece for piano,
Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant Jesus

[thracozaag]

It's interesting how this topic of "the most difficult" piano compositions come up so often.

It really depends on the pianist, doesn't it?  Some describe Ravel's Ondine being devilishly difficult, but it was a breeze for me, though I struggled with Scarbo.

However, one composer rarely mentioned is Alkan.  His Etudes, particularly the minor etudes, Op. 39 are very taxing.  His compositions make Liszt, Prokofiev and even Godowsky pale in comparison.

 Ondine IS harder...

koji

[Ecthelion]

I guess Schumann is a very difficult composer. The end of the 2 Mvt of the op. 17 Fantasy in C is REALLY difficult, big jumps over the piano-"board"!!!

regards, Ecthelion

[Mello]

Try some Scriabin if you really want to hurt your hands.

And are able to find it.

[liszmaninopin]

You're right about the Scriabin, definitely; I'm suprised that I left him off my list.  Try playing some of his later sonatas-they're extremely difficult.

[benbenben9752]

i thot no one else new about alkan!!! very weird man.. went into hiding for 32 years.. wrote some crazy stuff tho his technique was better than liszt's

[larse]

The most difficult? You should be polaying Boulez or Sorabij. I think Shönbergs piano concerto could be difficult. The most difficult music (to us, probably) was written between 1950 and 2000. Alot of this music are almost unplayable because it fits so bad to the ear of the common man, such as alot of us.

Gaspard de la Nuit by Ravel is supposed to be one of the hardest pieces out there. Try the Scarbo mvt.

If you're looking for composing, you should'nt be looking for the most difficult, cause that's usually quite uninterresting actually. Because when you write music...writing difficult music should not be the point. Study scores that develops yourself as a composer and interrests you as a composer. And the Opus Ultima of any composer. I would recommend Die Kunst Der Fuge by Bach and Mozart's requiem. If you're looking for newer music: Threnos by Penderecki and alot of Ligeti(Ligeti is one of the most influencal composers of the 1900s, and one of his works was merited 'the work of the century'). I find Boulez and Stockhausen uninterresting, but I like what Phillip Glass and Steve Reich have done. And of course, if you have'nt...look at Prokofiev, Shostakovic and Stravinskij. They tell a story about a tonal system which is something else than Romantic or classical, but yet tonal. And Britten, pherhaps.

[Motrax]

I'd say Alkan is known here mostly due to Comme_le_Vent, who's still banned I think. I'm pretty certain Sorabji wrote the toughest music in existence. A 4.5 hour Sonata which has three staves because the music won't fit on two.

[larse]

The score of Rachmaninovs Prelude in C#m is often parted up in 4 staves because it's just easier to read that way.

[DarkWind]

Sorabji is the only answer...

[Will Millar]

Try playing all of 'Pictures at an Exhibition' by Mussorgsky or 'Hungarian Rhapsody' by Liszt

[larse]

What? Those pieces don't at all come near the scale of the track. 'The most difficult pieces' would not be printed in the 1800s...They would'nt be written at that time.

[Antnee]

I know you didn't want Liszt but his piano transcriptions are some of the best 'hard' pieces out there. They sound like whole orchestras. And Are almost all fiendishly difficult.

-Tony-

[jcromp78]

For Liszt try the second version of the Transcendental Etudes for incredibly difficult stuff.

As for Alkan I have a lot of music of his and it is all quite punishing technically. Sample the Concerto for Solo piano or The Grand Sonata opus 33. Phew!!

[Max]

Alkans op.39 Etudes are evil (no's 1 and 7 especially)

Also all the original versions of Liszts Etudes are a fair bit harder.

[Medtner]

I don't think studying very difficult scores will help you much other than confusing you. They're confusing to anyone to begin with and unless you sit down and learn them one note at a time, you aren't really going to understand them or get much from them, unless you're doing a kind of chord structure or theoretical analysis.

Other than those mentioned already, you can try all of Albeniz's Iberia and Espana Suites. Then there are of course Medtner's sonatas.