True difficulty of Chopin Prelude 16?

[chopinlover01]

So, the Chopin masterpieces that are his preludes are ones I've been neglecting to play. I've played the c major, a minor, e minor, b minor, a major, f sharp major, d flat major, and c minor. I'm thinking about playing the B flat minor one next, but I've looked at the score mortified.
Not by the fast runs, but all the jumping octaves in the LH.
Is that the true difficulty of this piece? That seems to me to be the melody, as, at the tempo of Presto Con Fuoco, the individual notes of the RH seem to become blurred and obscured.
Cheers!

[j_menz]

Seems to me that the pedalling is the real tricky bit - enough to tie the bass phrasing together, but not so much as to blur the treble. It needs to be timed just right, and gauged just right.

[zheer]

Hi,

I'd say it is on the same level as the Chopin Etudes, the Chopin etudes being the peak of
piano playing.
You'll find that there are a lot of great music, with less technical challenges worth learning.

[chopincat]

#16 has a number of difficult aspects, and is far more difficult than all of the ones you've listed. In fact it's widely considered to be the most difficult of the preludes. Might be best to play a different one for now.

[kevonthegreatpianist]

Actually, zheer, the Etudes are said to be way harder than the Preludes. The Etudes are said to be mastered after the Preludes. And btw, Chopin's Ballades, Scherzos, and Rondos are as hard as the Etudes. And Liszt's etudes are a crap ton harder than Chopin's.

I think the Bb minor prelude is very complicated, but it's plausible. Once you get the right hand mastered, you basically mastered the Prelude. It's the same with Chopin's Berceuse. It's hard, but once you get the right hand mastered, voila! I'll probably rate the Prelude from a 8.5 to a 8.9 out of a 1 to 10 scale.

And chopincat, IMO, Op.28 No.24 is the hardest etude, followed by The Devil's Trill, recently found. You probably won't know it. Here's a vid. www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-U9p34qnik

[chopinlover01]

With due respect, this is a six month old topic where the conversation is mostly irrelevant (and I said I had played the C major prelude for some reason, tis a lie. Don't know why I said it)....