I saw someone posted about Rach 2 sonata

[lisztomania]

most of my listening is Liszt, I love virtuosity a lot.  But, when someone posted about Rach 2 sonata, I listened and it was cool.  About how hard is the first movement compared to like Chopin ballade 4 or la campanella or Chopin Scherzo 2 or Liszt Hungarian rhapsody 2 or the third movement of Prokofiev sonata 7

[j_menz]

OMG OMG!!  I almost forgot, it's..

[classicalnhiphop]

At J_menz, hahaha
at lisztomania: the first movement alone is harder than all the pieces you mentioned.  but ya, these are dumb questions

[philb]

Honestly if you can handle these works, I don't see why you couldn't tackle the sonata. From what I remember the first movement wasn't too bad (depending upon which version you play), though there are certainly still sections that will take some work (the development in particular is pretty nasty.) Just remember your good piano fundamentals (relaxation, weight transfer, etc.) and you should be fine.

Not a huge fan of this piece anymore outside of the smarmy (and gorgeous) slow sections in the first and second movements.

[lisztomania]

what if you were to rate all these pieces out of ten, include islamey in there as well pease

[j_menz]

what if you were to rate all these pieces out of ten, include islamey in there as well pease

I wouldn't be able to live with myself anymore.

Seriously, what's your fascination with this? Do you actually like music or are you just into pointless numbers?

[classicalnhiphop]

I think his (I think) obsession is because of competitions and all that. 
Chopin Ballade 4: 8.5
La campanella: 8.75
Chopin Scherzo 2: 7.5
Hungarian Rhapsody 2: 8.0
Prokofiev sonata 7 movement 3: 8.0
Islamey: 9.75
Rach sonata 2 movement 1: 9.25 I guess

[philb]

I think his (I think) obsession is because of competitions and all that. 

Most competition judges (at least at the young-highschool student level) don't care for how hard your pieces are, just that you are playing them well.

[chicoscalco]

I wouldn't be able to live with myself anymore.

Seriously, what's your fascination with this? Do you actually like music or are you just into pointless numbers?

J_menz, I used to get incredibly angry at people like these, untill I remembered I was the same once. In my younger years ( 'cause i'm still young) the first thing I did when given new repertoire was googling about its difficulty compared to la campanella or whatever. But I believe that at one point or another they will find one piece by these virtuoso composers that will open their eyes, actually years, to what music is all about. For me, it was Ravel's Valses Nobles et sentimentales. After that I spent like 2 months only listening to baroque, redescovering what once I called passionless and boring.
My point is, it's just a phase. It'll pass, there's nothing we can do.

[lisztomania]

so are classicalnhiphop's ratings about right? i think i might be able to handle the first movement but it could be a stretch.  Would you all agree?