most risky beginnings of piano pieces

[furiouzpianist]

hmm...

Liszt Concerto No. 1 (mess it up and you might as well walk off the stage LOL)
Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody No. 9
Beethoven Op. 111 (unless u play with both hands lol)
Beethoven Hammerklavier
Schumann Kreisleriana


any more?

[clouseau]

Rachmaninoff Prelude in C-sharp minor. The first three notes.

If you miss those(especially the C sharp) it will be so ridiculous that probably you wont play the piano ever again. 

[beethovenfan01]

Ondine?

[rachmaninoff_forever]

Ondine?

Le gibet is more dangerous cause that sets the tone for the entire piece

Well both of them do but IMO it's a lot harder to recover if you mess up the first b flat in le gibet.

Additionally I always thought the right hand in ondine is overhyped in difficulty

[klavieronin]

Rachmaninoff Prelude in C-sharp minor. The first three notes.

If you miss those(especially the C sharp) it will be so ridiculous that probably you wont play the piano ever again. 

Reminds me of that Monty Python sketch;

[clouseau]

@klavieronin: Immortal British humor!

This reminded me somehow of this:

But to give furiuzpianist a serious answer:
the opening trills of K330. If you mess up this brilliant opening, somehow you spoil the charm of the whole movement.
also hard, is calculating (yes it needs calculation) the levare of the "easy" op.25 No.1, so that it sounds like a levare but entering into a melody played piano, with even quieter arpeggiations underneath. It's tough to get the right touch from the very beginning even more so if you haven't warmed up and/or playing on a piano you don't know.

[ahinton]

Finnissy: English Country-Tunes?

Best,

Alistair

[beethovenfan01]

Le gibet is more dangerous cause that sets the tone for the entire piece

Well both of them do but IMO it's a lot harder to recover if you mess up the first b flat in le gibet.

Additionally I always thought the right hand in ondine is overhyped in difficulty

Sure. Maybe the whole Gaspard is overhyped for difficulty ...

[rachmaninoff_forever]

Sure. Maybe the whole Gaspard is overhyped for difficulty ...

Well I've played the whole thing so my opinion is based off actual experience and not just looking at the score and listening to recordings.  

Especially if you're in a hall with echoey acoustics you don't have to play all the notes.  It's just an effect.  As long as you get the general idea you're fine.  But you're often at the mercy of the instrument you're playing on and it has to have good balance.

[cfluke]

Beethoven Op 81a

Sure, the beginning's easy, but it's the most important phrase in the entire piece, and you are so exposed.

[beethovenfan01]

Well I've played the whole thing so my opinion is based off actual experience and not just looking at the score and listening to recordings. 

Especially if you're in a hall with echoey acoustics you don't have to play all the notes.  It's just an effect.  As long as you get the general idea you're fine.  But you're often at the mercy of the instrument you're playing on and it has to have good balance.

Well, I'm playing Scarbo at the moment, and agree with you completely.

Beethoven Op 81a

Sure, the beginning's easy, but it's the most important phrase in the entire piece, and you are so exposed.

Unfortunately yes. I went to a masterclass with that piece once and the pianist spent the entire time chewing me out about how TERRIBLE my beginning was.

On that note perhaps the Appassionata is just as dangerous?

[pianoville]

The beginning of Debussy's Feux d'artifice has always scared me. And I am playing it for a competition in may   

[furiouzpianist]

Well I've played the whole thing so my opinion is based off actual experience and not just looking at the score and listening to recordings.  

Especially if you're in a hall with echoey acoustics you don't have to play all the notes.  It's just an effect.  As long as you get the general idea you're fine.  But you're often at the mercy of the instrument you're playing on and it has to have good balance.

pretty much true for any piece 

[xdjuicebox]

Chopin 10-4

I cannot for the life of me play the first bar

[chopinlover01]

Beethoven Op 81a

Sure, the beginning's easy, but it's the most important phrase in the entire piece, and you are so exposed.

oh god this I'm getting ptsd

[rachmaninoff_forever]

pretty much true for any piece 

I remember I was doing a concerto competition for the Rach 2 and I thought I played TERRIBLY but after listening to a recording I was saved by acoustics hahaa

[abel2]

Beethoven Concerto 4, von Henselt Concerto. Both very tricky to get right, in very different ways.

[harukipiano]

The first part of Stravinsky's petrushka is currently breaking my fingers. Period.

[getsiegs]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Chopin Op. 10 No. 1... granted the entire piece is risky since it's so transparent but anyone could tell if you butcher the opening c major arpeggio

[lelle]

Op 10 no 1 is pretty scary to start. But whenever I have played it in public, I have remedied that by accepting that I am going to hit some wrong notes in that piece no matter what I do. It's still a beautiful piece, even with some wrong notes, if you shade and shape it properly.

[anacrusis]

I think Op 10 no 2 takes the cake of being scarư though. I planned on playing that one in an audition but chickened out the last minute. I just felt that if I couldn't trust 150% that it was going to work, I didn't want to even attempt it because it just falls apart if you do something even slightly wrong.