Which Chopin Ballade/Scherzo

[robatsch]

Hello fellow pianostreeters,

I just finished working on Chopin's Scherzo 2 and it was quite a challenge for me.  I would like to now learn another ballade or scherzo but I don't know what the logical next step would be.  Is there a specific ballade/scherzo that you would recommend that is on par with or only slightly more technically demanding than Scherzo 2?  Thank you for your suggestions.  Michael

[symphonicdance]

See how quickly you can tackle Ballade no 3 / Scherzo no 3 before chasing others.  Learn a few etudes first or in conjunction will do you good, too.

[cameronbiles]

I second the third ballade it may look simplistic on the page but you'd be surprised how tough it is ( I don't know how long I've been working on the climax of that ballade! )

[robatsch]

I'm now leaning toward either Ballade 3 or Scherzo 4 but I know this scherzo is considered possibly the hardest.  Surprisingly, Scherzo 4 is given a slightly lower difficulty rating on Henle compared to scherzos 1 to 3 though. 

[visitor]

color me confused, but at this level of rep. you are picking pieces to study based on diffuculty or demand? why not look at which you like more, which speaks to you more significantly, which do you connect with emotionally in a way that you can 'say something personal' in your performance of it, or which exposes short comings in your technique apparatus or musical sentiment and thus wrestling w/ it could improve those things so you finish it out better than when you started?

or i could be way off and a simple but [unique -i am sure this has not been done before] rank the chopin scherzo or ballades, or scherzo vs ballades difficulty rating might be a novel / new way to approach it 

[j_menz]

color me confused, but at this level of rep. you are picking pieces to study based on diffuculty or demand? why not look at which you like more, which speaks to you more significantly, which do you connect with emotionally in a way that you can 'say something personal' in your performance of it, or which exposes short comings in your technique apparatus or musical sentiment and thus wrestling w/ it could improve those things so you finish it out better than when you started?

That would mean treating piano as an art, not a sport. Where would that end?

-i am sure this has not been done before

Not this week, anyway.

[visitor]

That would mean treating piano as an art, not a sport. Where would that end?

Not this week, anyway.

we're talking about Kate right? No one ever seems to put a first name (or many times even a last name \@ all) to 'he that shall not be named' I always assume it's Kate.

[diomedes]

I think it's a valid question, I wouldn't want to play something that's surprisingly difficult. I underestimate repertoire all the time and hate how it bites me in the rear end.

I find some of these have relatively few notes to learn but have forbidding technical issues. I'd site Scherzi 1 and 3 as examples of that. After working on both, I found the 1st ballade fairly manageable in comparison, many notes aside. 2nd Ballade similar to scherzi, not that bad to digest but if you can deal with the climax of the coda you'll be ok, but it's damn nasty. Scherzo 2 is really good in terms of a fine sounding work for the amount of effort required.

I have not yet done the 3rd and 4th ballades, along with the 4th scherzo yet, but the 4th of each set i see as being more technically demanding than the rest.

[kevonthegreatpianist]

You could start the 1st Scherzo or the 3rd Ballade, which is one of the easiest ballades. The 1st Scherzo isn't actually that hard. It's just pretty long, even longer than the Ballade. I'm currently learning:

-Scherzo 1 and 2
-Ballade 1