World's hardest piece?

[soliloquy]

I can't "remember" what I never knew in the first place; do I understand you correctly that "ibbar" is in fact Ian Pace the pianist? If so, I was not previously aware of this fact. Professional etiquette and discretion precludes me from commenting on your observation about his belief here,

I do not imply, although I can understand your previous misconception upon the words I have spoken as per referencing your, as you perceive, knowledge of the fact that the member on this piano forum at this time known as "ibbar" is indeed the pianist Ian Pace, that you had prior understanding to this aforementioned point which I am now addressing concerning the identity of the member "ibbar," which I have previously insinuated to indeed be the pianist Ian Pace, although I feel it is imperative to mention that, having the knowledge that I do, it is a certainty that my previous statement is indeed factually accurate, therefor now enlightening you to this point thusly, although it is of no great concern to myself as to whether you take my statement with a grain of salt.  Please take this remark as being in no way odious.

but I would say that saving my finger strength would only help me to hold a pen better while writing, for I am not a pianist!


Best,

Alistair

The opinion that I have ascertained from this and prior conversation both on the telephone device and through computer electronic mediums, I do believe that due to your pedantic nature you may indeed certainly wish to choose that it is in your best interest to find that you may wish to save your finger strength for any writing, and I assume you reference manual paper correspondence and notes to one's self, or would this be another miscommunication?


Best,

Fox

[thalbergmad]

I do not imply, although I can understand your previous misconception upon the words I have spoken as per referencing your, as you perceive, knowledge of the fact that the member on this piano forum at this time known as "ibbar" is indeed the pianist Ian Pace, that you had prior understanding to this aforementioned point which I am now addressing concerning the identity of the member "ibbar," which I have previously insinuated to indeed be the pianist Ian Pace, although I feel it is imperative to mention that, having the knowledge that I do, it is a certainty that my previous statement is indeed factually accurate, therefor now enlightening you to this point thusly, although it is of no great concern to myself as to whether you take my statement with a grain of salt.  Please take this remark as being in no way odious.


The opinion that I have ascertained from this and prior conversation both on the telephone device and through computer electronic mediums, I do believe that due to your pedantic nature you may indeed certainly wish to choose that it is in your best interest to find that you may wish to save your finger strength for any writing, and I assume you reference manual paper correspondence and notes to one's self, or would this be another miscommunication?


Best,

Fox

A somewhat amusing (albeit off topic) endeavour to simulate the wholly individual characteristic posting style of ahinton, if that was indeed your purpose.

[ahinton]

I do not imply, although I can understand your previous misconception upon the words I have spoken as per referencing your, as you perceive, knowledge of the fact that the member on this piano forum at this time known as "ibbar" is indeed the pianist Ian Pace, that you had prior understanding to this aforementioned point which I am now addressing concerning the identity of the member "ibbar," which I have previously insinuated to indeed be the pianist Ian Pace, although I feel it is imperative to mention that, having the knowledge that I do, it is a certainty that my previous statement is indeed factually accurate, therefor now enlightening you to this point thusly, although it is of no great concern to myself as to whether you take my statement with a grain of salt.  Please take this remark as being in no way odious.

The opinion that I have ascertained from this and prior conversation both on the telephone device and through computer electronic mediums, I do believe that due to your pedantic nature you may indeed certainly wish to choose that it is in your best interest to find that you may wish to save your finger strength for any writing, and I assume you reference manual paper correspondence and notes to one's self, or would this be another miscommunication?

Best,

Fox

Ah - so we're "Fox", now, are we? "Jason", perhaps? Or just some other unidentifiable Renard not by Stravinsky? As if it matters....

Let's take your lack of points in order of - er - "presentation".

I am no more interested than I imagine most other forum members to be in whether the member of whom you appear to write is or is not the pianist Ian Pace than you appear to be in offering what could universally be interpreted as an unequivocal declaration of that member's actual identity; indeed, I referred to that matter at all only because you had chosen to refer to "Pace". Given our apparent mutual lack of interest (good grief! - something actually "mutual" - now there's a thing!) in the necessity of taking this any farther, I suggest that the matter of "ibbar"'s identity be dropped forthwith, since (a) it would not appear to be germane to any legitimate argument worthy of submission to this thread and (b) it's hardly "ibbar"'s fault if his/her identity encourages such commentary upon it as you have now taken it upon yourself to present.

In response to your alleged concern that I might take your remarks on this subject as "odious", let me inform you without further ado that I have, in due accordance with their "merits", not "taken" it anywhere or at all.

Whilst you fail, or otherwise omit, to identify what specific "opinion" you claim to "have ascertained" from what "conversation...on the telephone" with whom and/or when, it would seem that the sentence with which you open your paragraph on this non-subject was in any case intended to commence with the word "From" in order for it to make any kind of sense; I can no more be held responsible for that omission than I can for the fact that you likewise appear unaware that the word "therefore" ends in an "e", over here, at least.

As to your apparent assumption that we "reference manual paper correspondence and notes to one's self" (presumably meaning "myself") on such matters here, it is less a "miscommunication" as you appear to allege it to be than a misunderstanding, deliberate or otherwise, on your part as to what we spend some of our time doing here; since, however, we would expect you to have less than no interest in what we do here, we would counsel you not to worry your little head for as much as another millisecond about such alleged "miscommunications".

On the subject of finger strength, "more strength to your finger!" we say - provided, of course, that you do not abuse it (that's to say either the strength or the finger or both) and, even more so, provided that you employ it to type well-considered points on subjects which may actually be worth reading in this or other threads on this forum; any failure on your part to do this may be of little consequence to only a few people, but it may nevertheless at the same time risk rendering some of your own "miscommunications" as "soliloquies".

Now - back to the subject, anyone?

Best,

Alistair

[ahinton]

I do not imply, although I can understand your previous misconception upon the words I have spoken

More haste, less speed, goes the old cliché - having said which I confess that I should in my last posting have pointed out - since you appear to want me to act in some kind of pedantic manner - that one has "misconceptions" "of" things", not "upon" them...

Kind regards,

Alistair

[ibbar]

I'm not sure just how to react to this discussion, but I am not Ian Pace.

[ahinton]

I'm not sure just how to react to this discussion, but I am not Ian Pace.

I'm sure that I and other readers will thank you for this identity clarification! (although I have to admit that I did not think that you were Ian Pace either, but not to worry). Precisely how you decide to react to these latest bits of "discussion" here will presumably depend upon the extent, if any, to which you might even consider it BE discussion - at least of the thread topic (and if that statement doesn't imply a suitable answer to your implied question, I'm not sure what will!)...

Best,

Alistair

[soliloquy]

More haste, less speed, goes the old cliché - having said which I confess that I should in my last posting have pointed out - since you appear to want me to act in some kind of pedantic manner - that one has "misconceptions" "of" things", not "upon" them...

Kind regards,

Alistair

Definition of pedantic: too concerned with details or fine distinctions and too ready to criticize minor errors


Your last two posts are definitively pedantic =P



Oh ibbar- why don't you unhide your email address and show us how it's not ian@ianpace.com =D

[ahinton]

Definition of pedantic: too concerned with details or fine distinctions and too ready to criticize minor errors


Your last two posts are definitively pedantic =P

I am hardly likely to need you to define "pedantic" for me; of course the last two messages I wrote were concerned with, or commenting on, pedantry, yet as anyone with any sense will have realised at the outset, this was the precise intention in these particular instances and I more or less admitted as much in them, so please do your best to try not to feign surprise at this...

Oh ibbar- why don't you unhide your email address and show us how it's not ian@ianpace.com =D

Not my problem, obviously - but, that said, if "ibbar"'s email address IS indeed hidden, why would you appear to have assumed that it is actually "ian@ianpace.com"?

Best,

Alistair

[stevie]

about ian pace, an online friend of mine 'i love xenakis', is obsessed with him and often tells me that he imagines he has a very impressive phallus, an interesting chap.

on a side note - sorabji was gay, so he liked things nice and long.... and hard! yay!

[ahinton]

about ian pace, an online friend of mine 'i love xenakis', is obsessed with him and often tells me that he imagines he has a very impressive phallus, an interesting chap.

"About Ian Pace" your remark is most certainly not, since it confines itself to your "online friend"'s "obsession with him and what in the present context one might reasonably see as his questionable imaginings, without telling anyone anything about Ian Pace himself.

on a side note - sorabji was gay, so he liked things nice and long.... and hard! yay!

This statement (if one could dignify it by calling it such) goes even farther in the same non-direction, since it tells us nothing realistic, or provable, about Sorabji, or gays, or of what the preferences of either may actually be; we know that you didn't know Sorabji and, although we have no idea how many gays you may know, we take leave to doubt that you know much about what they might like, let alone whether there may be any likings common to all gays.

At least your lack of thinking here is consistent...

Best,

Alistair

[stevie]

randomly, but i thought it was pertinent, and most eloquent, if not alltogether relevant.

[ahinton]

randomly, but i thought it was pertinent, and most eloquent, if not alltogether relevant.

Your use of that apparently fashionable, yet in most instances intrinsically meaningless, term "randomly" is bad enough in itself, but your belief in the "pertinence" of what you write above is sadly misplaced, the "eloquence" you ascribe to it borders on absurdity and the "relevance" of which you thankfully express doubt doesn't even begin to have any kind of meaningful existence. After this and the disgustingly tasteless remark you made earlier about Jonathan Powell, it might seem that little, if anything, that you might do, say or write could ever hope to aspire to any kind of redemptive gesture, although you may like to note that I nevertheless give you all due credit for your remarks about Chopin/Godowsky elsewhere in this forum. In the light of this last subject, it would appear that you are by no means entirely lacking in intelligence; this being the case, all I would ask you to do now - at the risk (which, under the circumstances, I am more than prepared to take) of sounding unduly admonitory - is grow up, behave like a decent citizen of our profession and concentrate on the things about which you really do have something worthwhile to say.

Best,

Alistair

[mike_lang]

Your use of that apparently fashionable, yet in most instance intrinsically meaningless, term "randomly" is bad enough in itself, but your belief in the "pertinence" of what you write above is sadly misplaced, the "eloquence" you ascribe to it borders on absurdity and the "relevance" of which you thankfully express doubt doesn't even being to have any kind of meaningful existence. After this and the disgustingly tasteless remark you made earlier about Jonathan Powell, it might seem that little, if anything, that you might do, say or write could ever hope to aspire to any kind of redemptive gesture, although you may like to note that I nevertheless give you all due credit for your remarks about Chopin/Godowsky elsewhere in this forum. In the light of this last subject, it would appear that you are by no means entirely lacking in intelligence; this being the case, all I would ask you to do now - at the risk (which, under the circumetances, I am more than prepared to take) of sounding unduly admonitory - is grow up, behave like a decent citizen of our profession and concentrate on the things about which you really do have something worthwhile to say.

Best,

Alistair

I don't think I've yet read a remark by you that wasn't picking a fight of some sort.  Interesting forum personality...

[moi_not_toi]

Sorabji's Opus Clavicembalisticum  

AMEN!!!!
I would say Bach's Inventions. There's more to the music than just the music.

[soliloquy]

I don't think I've yet read a remark by you that wasn't picking a fight of some sort.  Interesting forum personality...

Alistair does not "pick fights".  He institutes acrimony.  He is far too high and mighty to do something as plebeian.


I think it's cause he's lonely.

[ahinton]

I don't think I've yet read a remark by you that wasn't picking a fight of some sort.  Interesting forum personality...

No "forum personality" at all, actually. Your very selective statement is clearly indicative of the fact that you have not read all of my posts (not that I necessarily expect you to do so, of course). A brief glance at them will demonstrate, for example, that I rarely "pick" anything at all, in the sense that I usually only respond to others' posts rather than initiate threads myself.

There are indeed times when I may be forthright, but that is quite a different matter. Just take a quick look, for example, at the post to which mine that you quote was a response - and note my castigation of its writer who, in another thread on this forum, recently wrote of pianist Jonathan Powell's plans to record Sorabji's Opus Clavicembalisticum soon:

"it would be deliciously ironic if powell died before recording this piece"

- now if these remarks do not constitute "picking a fight", I'm not sure what does - and a fight to the death, it would seem, if the latter is taken literally - though certainly not one of my making. Now have a look at my recent post under the "New Complexity" thread and tell me what, anywhere in its several paragraphs, is combative about it.

You may PM me about this if you feel like being bothered to do as I suggest, in preference to taking up space on a thread covering a quite different subject; please feel no obligation to do anything at all, however.

Best,

Alistair
 
 

[soliloquy]

Yes, alistair, he did that just to make you mad, because after all you are Jonathan Powell, right?  =P

[ahinton]

Alistair does not "pick fights".  He institutes acrimony.  He is far too high and mighty to do something as plebeian.

Really? How fascinating! I suggest that you also have a look at my previous post here, note the motivations for my responses to the member concerned and then take up the other suggestion in it - unless, of course, you're "far too high and mighty" to do something as troublesome. If you do so, however, you may find, for example, that I made positive comments about a number of contributors' helpful aqnd informative posts in the "New Complexity" thread - including your own, as it happens; if that constitutes "picking acrimony" or "instituting fights", well, we must all just leave you alone with your own personal definition of these activities, must we not?

I think it's cause he's lonely.

So you "think", after all? Well, there's apparent progress! Someone - I cannot now remember who it was - once said of composers that they "shouldn't think - it interferes with their plagiarism" - but then, unlike me, you may not be a composer, so this might not apply to you. "Lonely"? Not a chance! "Solitary" when writing, of course - but then composing is by its very nature a solitary activity - and solitariness is, in any case, entirely different to loneliness.

Don't get too lonely out there yourself, will you?

Best,

Alistair

[ahinton]

Yes, alistair, he did that just to make you mad, because after all you are Jonathan Powell, right?  =P

Wrong - as anyone who knows either one or both of us is well aware.

Best,

Alistair

[soliloquy]

I don't think you got my point.  Well maybe you did but just decided to deflect since you're obviously wrong.  I will now explain more thoroughly.

Someone making a slanderous comment about Jonathan Powell has NOTHING to do with you, because you are not Jonathan Powell as everybody knows.  Sarcasm seems to be a concept you're not familiar with?  So, since you're not Jonathan Powell, someone making a comment about him is obviously not an attempt to instigate a fight with you.  Not totally sure why you'd think that.  Do you <3 Powell?  Does he make your pants tighter?  Do I need to explain what I mean when I say "make your pants tighter"?

[bflatminor24]

Let me start by politely asking people to lay off Alistair Hinton. We are lucky he is part of this forum.

That said I want to take this thread in a slightly new direction. As most of us are familiar with extremely challenging scores, we can all agree that there are commonalities in this music. I sense we are converging towards labelling avant-garde music as the most difficult. Since there is an enormous volume of avant-garde piano music, much of it making demands of the pianist borderlining on impossibility, it should be noted that there are different elements of difficulty that distinguish this music.

For example, "unpianistic" music is intrinsically difficult because such technical demands include huge leaps, awkward rhythms, variable dynamics and difficult notes. For this reason the music is technically challenging. But what about ridiculously difficult scores that pose (by comparison) little technical challenge? The best example I can conjure would be the late Scriabin sonatas, where they become very musically difficult. A pianist myself, I can easily overcome any technical challenges in his late sonatas yet there is no way I can follow the score accurately, as intended. Suppose a composition were to include an obfuscated, dense score incapable of comprehending but that demands no technical hurdles of the performer? Is this still eligible for a top difficulty rating?

Lastly, to put some closure on the New Complexity discussion, I want to opine that a lot of this music is,  in some ways, experimental. That is, the composers are not necessarily pianists capable of performing their own music. I used to believe that pianist-composers composed virtuosic music to their own difficulty level (i.e. Godowsky) but I was mistaken. Ligeti composed outrageously hard etudes and his pianism is poor at best (he even admits this). Many avant-garde composers write music they cannot play, but they want to achieve certain sounds or effects on the piano without regard to their feasibility in a performance.

-Max

PS May I politely ask participants of this forum to lay off Alistair Hinton? I can understand how some of you dislike his verbiage but he is a good contributer and we are lucky to have him on this forum.

[panic]

Thanks, Max.

If you guys can get used to the way Finnissy and New Complexity music sounds and look beyond first impressions, then certainly you can get used to the way Alistair Hinton talks.

[bflatminor24]

I apologize for the redundancy. My computer omitted the first two sentences so I added them at the end, then they both showed up.  

[bflatminor24]

Thanks, Max.

If you guys can get used to the way Finnissy and New Complexity music sounds and look beyond first impressions, then certainly you can get used to the way Alistair Hinton talks.

Well Put. On another note, Mr. Hinton, might I be able to sample some of your compositions either in recording or in sheet music? I am always curious for new music yet I'm not sure if I'm willing to spend another $20 or so on Amazon yet...I'd like to hear your style. Keep in mind I have very open tastes - for someone who hated Rachmaninoff four years ago to someone who loves Sorabji, Alkan and Scriabin I feel I have come a long way.

[ahinton]

I don't think you got my point.

Almost certainly because you didn't have one.

Someone making a slanderous comment about Jonathan Powell has NOTHING to do with you, because you are not Jonathan Powell as everybody knows.

Really? Well, whilst I'm relieved to learn that you do at least recognise that I am not Jonathan Powell, were I to interpret your observation here literally, I would be obliged to conclude that anyone can make a "slanderous comment about Jonathan Powell" and it has "NOTHING" - note your capitals - to do with anyone who is not actually Mr Powell himself. Such a notion by definition incorporates a belief that it "has NOTHING to do" even with anyone who has known him and his work for almost two decades and collaborated with and encouraged him in his Sorabji recordings and score editing - facts which are hardly surprising, since I am responsible for Sorabji's legacy and Mr Powell has performed and recorded more of Sorabji's music than any other musician in history. Your remark is therefore almost as absurd as claiming that Hitler's invasion of Poland had nothing - sorry, NOTHING - to do with the Poles. I cannot imagine anyone ever wanting to hire you as a defence lawyer.

Sarcasm seems to be a concept you're not familiar with?

Far from it; indeed, my understanding of it is more than sufficient to enable me to recognise the dismal failure of your attempted use of it in this context.

So, since you're not Jonathan Powell, someone making a comment about him is obviously not an attempt to instigate a fight with you.  Not totally sure why you'd think that.

Nor am I - for the simple reason that I do not think that, nor have I suggested that I do so; when someone does make a remark of that nature, however, upbraiding the person making it and demonstrating personal distaste for it hardly constitutes "instigating a fight", especially since my remark is a response to the instigation rather than the instigation itself. Logic seems to be a concept that you're not familiar with?

For all the inappropriateness of its application, I am pleased, nonetheless, to note your more appropriately correct use of the term "instigate" here, as distinct from "institute" in your previous post. For anyone to "institute" acrimony, a fight or anything else, it would, by defnition, be necessary to encourage others to indulge in it, thereby turning it into some kind of "institutional" activity, whereas merely to "instigate" any such thing presumes and requires only the activity of the instigator him/herself. Just a little piece of pedantry to cheer you up; we all know how much you like that kind of thing, don't we?!

Best,

Alistair

[ahinton]

Well Put. On another note, Mr. Hinton, might I be able to sample some of your compositions either in recording or in sheet music? I am always curious for new music yet I'm not sure if I'm willing to spend another $20 or so on Amazon yet...I'd like to hear your style. Keep in mind I have very open tastes - for someone who hated Rachmaninoff four years ago to someone who loves Sorabji, Alkan and Scriabin I feel I have come a long way.

Thank you for your kind interest. There are three pieces of mine curently available on CD (none of which are "the world's hardest piece", I should say, not wishing to depart unduly from the thread subject!); all are on the Altarus label, as folllows:
AIR-CD-9021         Variations & Fugue on a theme of Grieg
                             Donna Amato, piano
                             (this CD also includes works by Grieg/Stevenson, Stevenson and Sorabji)

AIR-CD-9063(2)    Pansophiæ for John Ogdon
                             Kevin Bowyer, organ
                             (this 2-CD set "in Memoriam John Ogdon" also includes works by Stevenson and Busoni, transcr. Middelschulte played by Kevin Bowyer and by Busoni, Stevenson and Ogdon played by Ogdon himself)

AIR-CD-9066(3)    String Quintet
                             Jagdish Mistry (violin)
                             Marcus Barcham-Stevens (violin)
                             Levine Andrade (viola)
                             Michael Stirling (cello)
                             Corrado Canonici (double bass)
                             with
                             Sarah Leonard (soprano) in the finale

Scores are unavailable in scanned form but may be obtained in hard copy form from The Sorabji Archive; please email us at
sorabji-archive@lineone.net
and we will gladly email you a catalogue by return.

You have indeed - as you say - "come a long way" in that time!

Thank you again.

Best,

Alistair

[bflatminor24]

I do not imply, although I can understand your previous misconception upon the words I have spoken as per referencing your, as you perceive, knowledge of the fact that the member on this piano forum at this time known as "ibbar" is indeed the pianist Ian Pace, that you had prior understanding to this aforementioned point which I am now addressing concerning the identity of the member "ibbar," which I have previously insinuated to indeed be the pianist Ian Pace, although I feel it is imperative to mention that, having the knowledge that I do, it is a certainty that my previous statement is indeed factually accurate, therefor now enlightening you to this point thusly, although it is of no great concern to myself as to whether you take my statement with a grain of salt.  Please take this remark as being in no way odious.


The opinion that I have ascertained from this and prior conversation both on the telephone device and through computer electronic mediums, I do believe that due to your pedantic nature you may indeed certainly wish to choose that it is in your best interest to find that you may wish to save your finger strength for any writing, and I assume you reference manual paper correspondence and notes to one's self, or would this be another miscommunication?


Best,

Fox

Idiot. It's "media" not "mediums" but since you just sat there with thesaurus.com open it'd be kind of hard for you to understand the context in which you write. Too bad too - I'm sure your ostentacity fooled someone.

Best,

Max

[jre58591]

haha i love how soliloquy used the name "fox". its obviously fake, along with some other suspicious pieces by that same composer.

[bflatminor24]

We all love John. He is an amazing person. He lies to us all! I have too much fun while stoned...tsk tsk Max.

As for Mr. Alistair, I love his works! I bought this CD off Amazon today with a bunch of Hinton's music and I was in ecstasy. And I love his British prosody in the piano fora. What a pee eye em pee.

~Max~

[desordre]

Hi there!
I'm brand new to this forum, and apologize for my written english.
Two things came up to my mind reading the above postings: Beethoven and Liszt. But no, I'll not say that a piece of they it's the most difficult, even the Hammerklavier or the B minor. I guess this two mentioned compositions WERE the most difficult at the time were written. Could anyone list a work harder than the first composed till 1818?
In the other hand, please never, actually never indeed, forget that Beethoven was at a time a composer that pianists and public felt "not musical" (basically his chamber and solo music from opus 59 quartets, that were dismissed by they very own original performers). Just to quote an example: there are many many others. For instance, Liszt was absolutely unplayable by anyone else in the mid XIX century, and nowadays he's undergraduate matter. Just because you don't like or don't understand something it doesn't mean it's not good, or it's not music.
I have to quote Mr. lostinidlewonder, 'cause I really agree with his post:

But with music that explores the boundaries outside of "traditional" writing we must listen to it with much more attention and time. Most people don't care for this and simply dismiss "difficult" to listen to music, and I don't blame them. It sounds like noise to the untrained ear, we have to learn how to listen to unusual music and change what we listen for to fully appreciate it, most people don't have that time to give.

I still don't think the worlds hardest piano piece has been composed. I could imagine at the keyboard we have worked out the hardest things to possibly do but I think it would be really interesting if some actual technique was developed for plucking strings of the piano with the fingers. I could imagine how insane it would be to see someone play something like Sorabji and pluck strings to create another sound at the same time. That would be something totally bizzare.

And here he touches the most important thing of all (naturally, in my humble opinion): if the "World's hardest (piano) piece" exists, the piano music is dead. And if it was composed more than, just to say, twenty years ago, the piano music is already dead for a while and we are just necrologists (or necrophiliacs). Anyway, if the piano as an instrument is still a live thing, by definition it points toward something new, something different, something challenging.
That's all folks. Please note that I really don't want to insult anybody, I'm just sharing some thoughts.
Best wishes!
P.S.: forgive about the necrophilian joke... I really love ancient music (meaning: pre-20th century).
P.S.2: there are plenty of music that uses plucked strings or the piano as a percussion instrument. Just remember Cage or the very neglected Henry Cowell.

[ravel]

i plan to compose that soon...
 

[imbetter]

To me, the hardest pieces are two-fold.  The hardest technically I would say are Liszt's.  They require great technique and an open mind.  And very fast hands.  I played La Campanella, and during rehersal, tore a tendon in my hand (which led me to work on my technique!).

On the other hand, i think that there is the interpretive stance.  The hardest pieces to play well, to me, are Chopin.  He music is so beautiful and intense, and technical, that it is hard to play it too fast or to try to show off.  With Chopin, it's easy to want to show off, but it's dangerous because it's the very thing it's not intended for.  So, his music is hard to play well.

I miscplaced a bone and tore a muscel (sp? lol) playing la campanella

[opus10no2]

This is a noteworthy response.

[mephisto]

Chopin/Godowsky Opus.25.11 or Etude No.42 as it is also called.

[jakev2.0]

Yeah, well I broke both legs, three ribs, and three fingers from my left hand during a live performance of Schubert's E flat Impromptu.

[opus10no2]

Chopin/Godowsky Opus.25.11 or Etude No.42 as it is also called.

haha This piece has never been taken at tempo, so 'tis possibly true.

[pianistimo]

how did you manage that, jake?

[opus10no2]

He just played it badly and the audience reacted accordingly 

[gymnopedist]

Or, he went to bow to the audience, and accidentally fell off the stage.

[elevateme_returns]

the worlds hardest piece is definitely NOT scarbo.

[amelialw]

`Rhapsody in Blue?  I have no idea, just a guess.``

lol, this is definately not the hardest piece.
One of the hardest pieces is probably Brahms Piano Concerto No.2

[lostinidlewonder]

The worlds hardest piece would be a piece which is impossible to play. I heard that there are singular pieces composed that run for hundreds of years, try doing that!
One example :
 https://www.bbc.co.uk/nottingham/content/articles/2006/11/22/neil_bennison_longplayer_feature.shtml

[retrouvailles]

Haha, this thread.

[swim4ever_22]

All of you are wrong!

The hardest piece ever written has GOT to be... Mozart's Minuet K.1.