Most musically challenging Chopin piece?

[korlock]

I've heard a lot about Ballade 4, but I was listening to Grande Polonaise and it seems like it would take quite a bit of musicality. What do you guys think?

[omar_roy]

This may sound stupid, but while the Grand Polonaise and the 4th Ballade are enormous masterworks, I can't help but think of his E minor Prelude when it comes to the most musically challenging.  It's short, simple, and technically very easy, but there's so much to think about.  The placement of each chord in the left hand, the short and intense cadenza, how to shape each suspension, etc etc.  Everything has to be perfect, especially the placement and dynamics of the final few chords.  You can "get away" with a lot more in his bigger pieces, but not so in his preludes, especially the e minor.

[thorn]

I would say Ballade 4 every time. Pianists get so swept away with the difficulty/technical side and with the popularity and with the general beauty that they rarely think exactly what it is they want to say with it. The first few pages before it begins to get technically challenging are so difficult to make music of; the melody is so repetitive and the brain is often so focused on what is to come that expression can be neglected and each repetition sounds just like that- a cut and paste job rather than an organic structure. Not saying the technically difficult parts are musically easier by any means; in my opinion very few have made actual music of the coda.

[b_nghiem]

No one's opinion is stupid. Many underestimate the Preludes, although some do have hidden difficulties and depth. Personally, I find the Fantaisie, the Polonaise-Fantaisie, the Ballades, and the Barcarolle to be very musically challenging (and technically very difficult to pull off.)
All of his music is drenched in "zal", so what may seem like just an unassuming mazurka might be a bit more.

[hoohah2]

Personally, my vote goes to Nocturne Op. 27 No.1 or Etude Op. 25 No.7 .

[j_menz]

All of it!! 

[fftransform]

The 4th Scherzo is by far the most difficult to interpret well.  This does not necessarily mean that it is Chopin's "deepest" piece, however.

[werq34ac]

My teacher tells me the Barcarolle is more difficult than the 4th Ballade. Seeing as the 4th Ballade is by far more difficult technically in terms of pure notage, I assume that the difficulty of the Barcarolle lies in a smooth double noted right hand and the musical difficulty.