Hi Stevebob,I am wondering if you play all of the Chopin etudes? The reason I am asking is while indeed, the difficulty is in the eyes of beholder, on the other hand, there are some obvious flaws in your classification. For example, you place the 10/2, 10/7, and 25/8 into the "Harder group", while 10/10, 10/11, and esp. 25/5 () into the "Hardest". The former group should be rather in the "Hardest Group" (esp. if we are talking about op.10/2), and the last etude of your "Hardest goup" (op. 25/5) is actually should be rather in the "Slower" or "Easier Group". The 10/11 is just a matter of hand size, and the 10/10 is quite a comfortable piece, but both would not go into the "Hardest" by any stretch. The 25/12 is rather an "Easier" one and often is the first Chopin etude many students play. Throughout many years I've been discussing those etudes with quite a few pianists who not only recorded them all, but also played them live and everyone tends to agree.As a side note, in different points of my life I played ALMOST all of them and while for me the hardests are still the Op. 25/3 and Op.25/4, to play any of them in a good tempo, with a good quality and with element of WOW is quite a task. Best, M
This isn't meant to be anything more than my opinion; the case could definitely be made that some of the "Harder" etudes belong in the "Hardest" group and vice versa.
There has been some talk in this thread over the difficulty of Op. 10 No. 2, Op. 25 No. 4, and Op. 25 No. 11.Why not combine them all together like Marc-André Hamelin did?
I'm sorry you find my classification flawed, but your own statements of opinion seem a bit rigid and dogmatic for my tastes. In particular, I find it hard to believe your claim that "everyone tends to agree" about the respective degrees of challenge in these pieces; in my experience, that's not true at all.
Given the lack of comity and civility here, I'm very troubled by marik's felt-need to depart from Piano Street. He's an extraordinary artist. His being driven out reflects very poorly on this forum in my opinion. It would seem that members could disagree without being disagreeable, but evidently not.David
Very interesting, can you explain how you go about thirds? I have found octaves to be very natural, but I think most people find thirds awkward. I'm curious why you found op 25 no 6 easy.
I know this wasn't directed at me but I'm also in the I-find-25/6-pretty-easy camp. I think it's largely due to my small hands; I can go a fairly long time with my wrist high and my fingers all cramped together without getting super uncomfortable. By contrast, I'd rather die than start learning 10/1 or 10/11
No, Op. 10/2, not for me. Yeah, I'll fool around with it (with Chopin's fingerings) like I always have but it's so strange and has few applications outside this étude, IMHO.
So its value is that it forces you to discover a more relaxed technique or else it is just impossible.
One or two days of trying my hand at the op 10 no 2 had a noticeable effect on chromatic octaves for me.
That's kind of interesting. I suspect you might be talking about alternating fingers 4 and 5, in, say, a RH passage. Or perhaps not.