Chopin piano solos, ranked and sortable

[paperstardust]

henle and ARSM levels: chopin piano solos

I went poking around on henle's ratings of Chopin and bernhard's lists of ABRSM grading (grading is very subjective but it gives a good picture than none at all). It should more or less contain all of Chopin's publicized pieces (232 total, +/- a few variations on existing pieces and things I forgot). I'm sure there are plenty of other spreadsheets but I'm posting this just in case.

Averages made with both lists of ratings shows the following order of difficulty:
waltzes, mazurkas,
nocturnes, polonaises, preludes,
impromptus, etudes, scherzi, rondos, ballades, sonatas.

note that the preludes, waltzes, mazurkas, polonaises, etudes, and nocturnes are larger bodies of work with larger ranges of difficulties, while the impromptus, scherzi, rondos, ballades, and sonatas tend to be rated more consistently. You can do more calculations with the data or make copies of the spreadsheet to modify for your own purposes.


Please post/send me corrections and suggestions!

[mathiasf]

Nice list for the henle and ABSRM scores, however ranking the Chopin studies and waltzes are kind of awkward in my opinion. The studies are very focused on particular sub-skills of piano and while revolutionary is ranked 7.5/9 it has very recognisable patterns and straight-foward dynamics, as with the ocean and waterfall study. Therefore, if you've practised your left hand octaves enough, the revolutionary is very easy to go through while the same goes for the waterfall study with the right hand.
Same goes for the waltzes. If you're used to playing waltzes you will have no problem learning the chopin waltzes, whilst if you've never seen a waltz in your life you will probably struggle learning the am posthumous even if you're playing the studies.

The rest of his pieces are easier to rank and the henle/absrm scores are probably a very good reference here (except the prelude 28 04 is ranked as harder than 28 06, marche funébre and a bunch of mazurkas. That looks really weird and wrong) 

[jlskiles]

I would say that polonaises should be above preludes. While both have several easy and several difficult selections, the most difficult polonaises are arguably harder then some of the ballades. By comparison, the hardest prelude compares to some of the more difficult etudes, but nothing near a ballade.

So, I would switch the places of polonaises and preludes, but other than that I agree.

[chopincat]

I know that your henle rankings for the op 9 nocturnes are wrong, and some of the other nocturne rankings might be as well. The henle rankings for the nocturnes can be found here:
https://www.henleusa.com/us/detail/index.html?Title=Nocturnes_9185

[symphonicdance]

The grading would only tell one or a few aspects, perhaps the technical difficulty predominantly.  Just like Fur Elise, a 3rd grader, 6th grader, diploma holder, professional pianist can all play it, but most people should be able to tell the difference of their overall piano capabilities.