Rachmaninoff preludes and etudes difficulty?

[onwan]

I'd love to star with some Rachmaninoff pieces, but I'm not sure about the difficulty. Could you please tell me the difficulty order of those pieces?

op.23-no.3,5,7
op.32-no.5,8,10,12
op.33-no.3,5,8
op.39-no.6

[asuhayda]

Hey!

I can't speak for the Etudes, I haven't played them (not crazy about them).

However, I've played many of the preludes that you've listed...

of the list of 3,5 and 7 and probably rank them in that order of difficulty.  The Rach 23. Op.7 in C minor is one of my favorite pieces of all time.  Not CRAZY hard, but there's some weird half pedaling and hand crossing going on.  Plus it's like 6 pages of relentless 16th notes that you have to keep even and omnious.  5 isn't easy either, but everyone plays that one.

Op. 32 - 5 - Hard
Op. 32 - 8 - HARDEST <-- this is the hardest of the preludes you've listed IMO
Op. 32 - 10 - Harder <-- there is a crazy cadenza in this piece that makes it a little harder.
Op. 32 - 12 - Actually, not that hard.. it didn't take me long to learn this one at all.. it's beautiful.

Jane Magrath's book on Teaching and Piano Literature lists Op.32 - 12 at LVL 10. which is the top of her scale.  (just to put the other ones into perspective)

This is just my opinion though.  Other people might have different opinions.