Aggregate Difficulty Rankings for Beethoven Sonatas

[preludetr]

I did a search for "Beethoven Sonatas difficulty rankings" and found that different people have come with very different orders. I decided to see what the average pianist thinks, so I took several lists and averaged them out. This was the result:


1. op 49/2
2. op 49/1
3. op 79 "Cuckoo"
4. op 14/1
5. op 2/1
6. op 14/2
7. op 10/1
8. op 10/2
9. op 13 "Pathetique"
10. op 26 "Funeral March"
11. op 28 "Pastoral"
12. op 22
13. op 2/3
14. op 10/3
15. op 2/2
16. op 27/2 "Moonlight"
17. op 31/3 "The Hunt"  (TIE)
17. op 54 (TIE)
19. op 78 "A Therese"
20. op 31/2 "Tempest"
21. op 27/1
22. op 7 "Grand"
23. op 31.1
24. op 90
25. op 81a "Les Adieux"
26. op 53 "Waldstein"
27. op 57 "Appassionata"
28. op 110
29. op 109
30. op 101
31. op 111
32. op 106 "Hammerklavier"

Although difficulty rankings will always be subjective, this might be the best approximation for students to follow, just to get a general idea of which sonatas they should look into, since it is the closest to what the average pianist believes.

[visitor]

there are 4 sonatas missing from your list
Bonn sonatas 1 2 and 3

*pletnev plays, this is jiggy -

Fantasia Sonata

[preludetr]

Ahh, true. I remember playing the WoO 47 no. 3 as a kid. The lists I found included only the sonatas with opus numbers. I suspect the WoO ones would fall at the low end of the list difficulty-wise.

[rubinsteinmad]

there are 4 sonatas missing from your list
Bonn sonatas 1 2 and 3

*pletnev plays, this is jiggy -

Fantasia Sonata

Those dont count as part of the "32 Piano Sonatas".

I dont see the point of you attempting to be a smart aleck.

[visitor]

Those dont count as part of the "32 Piano Sonatas".

I dont see the point of you attempting to be a smart aleck.

No where did op state 32 sonatas.  Only beethoven sonatas.  It is fact simple as that. The list was incompletemas it did not include those piano sonatas by beethoven.

[alkan2010]

The three Electorate could perhaps be in the list, since they were originally called as Sonatas by the -young- author, and were also included in some old-style Complete Sonatas scores.
They're far more difficult than the easy op.49, being longest and with more brave passagework. IMHO, about at the same level of op. 79 and only a little easier than op. 14/1.
I see the wonderful op.90 a little overstimated, and the Pathetique underestimated, at the contrary.