Is the Mephisto Waltz really supposed to be that hard?

[wilmerguido]

I mean... I've read through it, and it's quite manageable. I actually found Chopin's Ballade no. 1 to be quite harder, because the coda part was crazy hard. I find the Mephisto Waltz to be quite cliche these days...

[furtwaengler]

The jumps, man, the jumps!

[wilmerguido]

Yup, the jumps are definitely hard... but i find the arpeggios way harder

[werq34ac]

I've read it through, and I'd say the jumps are much more difficult than the arpeggios for me. I'm really not sure whether I should tackle it or not, but I have to say, Chopin's Ballade no.1 was a piece of cake compared to this in terms of technicalities. Musically, I want to say that the ballade is more difficult, but I could be wrong.

And maybe its just of my age group but among the people I know, 2 people have played the Mephisto waltz recently and I'd say about 10 people have played Chopin's Ballade 1 recently (as in within the past 2 years.