Scherzo "Vs" Moment

[richterfan1]

Folks i know this is stupid topic, but i am curious! is Chopin's Scherzo No.3 harder than Rachmaninoff Moment musical No.4? i think it is.. just want to hear other opinions?  

[j_menz]

If you find it more difficult, then for you it is more difficult.  There's not much objective about these comparisons that's useful.

[rachmaninoff_forever]

I've HEARD that the 4th moment musical is the hardest out of the six, but I haven't played the rest of the five so I don't know.

The major difficult thing with the 4th one is the endurance?  More so the left hand.  And then towards the end of this piece, you have to do like several octave jumps.  Not several OCTAVES, jumps, but just one octave.  I haven't played this in a while so I may be leaving out some stuff.

I haven't played the scherzo so I have no idea what's difficult and not difficult about it.  hoped I helped!

[_nisa_]

Dear both,

Let me just add my experience on that.

Rachmaninoff's Moment Musical 4 is a hard piece. Much harder than it seems.
The main difficulty is not endurance. It is hard to put the piece together so endurance builds up by the time you learn the piece. I can see two main difficulties: getting it up to tempo (I remember having this tendency to forget notes on the left hand while trying to increase tempo), and phrasing. The melody seems really simple in the A part but I found it hard to make it convincing since you really have to focus on left hand and the melody comes from the right one. The different lines are tough to express in the B part.
Also, rubato and piano/pianissimo parts help dissipate stress.
The jumps have not been a problem for me... but I am familiar to Rachmaninoff's music so I am not a good example.

I think Moment Musical 2 is harder because it is an Etude-like of the most difficult part of Moment Musical 4... it is also very lyrical but sadly not well-known
I haven't worked the Moment Musical 2 (have always been afraid of it) though.

Nisa

[pianoplayjl]

Moments musical no 4 is harder than Scherzo 3. Depends on the pianist and his skills. Some find one easier than the other.

JL