the most physically exhausting music to play?

[lenny]

for longer works - the alkan concerto has to be one(and of course any really long work...sorabji OC beign a famous example)

and for a SHORT romantic work - alkan's allegro barbaro is near unsurpassed

liszt's chasse neige also seems very exhausting because of the constant barrage of tremelos

for finger busters - the op10/1 of chopin is very tiring for the right hand, and alkan's comme le vent has simply NEVER been played at tempo(we dont even know if alkan achieved it)

im thinking of knucklebusters that give you no break from a constant barrage of exhausting passages...any others? islamey?

[willcowskitz]

A few obvious ones:

Liszt:

William Tell Overture -- Horrible finale.

Totentanz for piano solo -- Not many places to rest. On from the demanding fugato (5th variation) the bombing keeps going til the end.

Reminiscences de Robert le Diable -- Octaves, octaves, rapid octaves, left hand octaves, right hand octaves, jumping octaves, all the way octaves


Beethoven:

Waldstein -- Endless monotonous repetitions.

[pianobabe56]

Merely because I've never played anything more exhausting, probably the Rachmaninoff Prelude in G minor - not the hardest, but the most exhausting.

[ted]

I wouldn't go as far as to use the word "exhausting" but unless I am very careful I still sometimes feel stretched by the heavier pieces of Waller. There are no short cuts with him or else you will lose the rhythmic life. Any sort of legato or weight transfer is right out of the question for similar reasons. I actually find something like Gladyse more taxing than, say, a piece like Mazeppa. There are tricks and ways of having microsleeps in the latter but there is no such approach to heavy stride because of the rhythmic drive, which is so vital to the music.

[BoliverAllmon]

this is an interesting topic. It is pretty subjective but neat nonetheless. i don't know what I would consider the most exhausting. Probably Busoni PC would come in there though. at least mentally taxing.

boliver allmon III

[keys]

I find Chopin's Polonaise op. 53 really exhausting. Your hands are always stretched out.  It seems sort of tricky at the beginning, and then he adds trills to the chords, then throws in a couple pages of really fast and quite octaves in the L.H (my weak hand) and THEN has you play everything at the same time for the finale. The only other song that I have learned that was mentioned on this thread is the Waldstein, and it wasn't too bad, you've got to love trills though.  Ooo another one is Chopin Etude Op. 10 Nr.8. Those Etudes are bad news Oh well, All of the exhausting songs I have learned have been well worth the effort.

[apion]

this is an interesting topic. It is pretty subjective but neat nonetheless. i don't know what I would consider the most exhausting. Probably Busoni PC would come in there though. at least mentally taxing.

boliver allmon III

Yep, the Busoni PC is very physically taxing too.

[pianonut]

this sound simple, but 'rondo alla turca' in all it's variations. 

[steinwayguy]

this sound simple, but 'rondo alla turca' in all it's variations.

[Skeptopotamus]

for longer works, brahms sonatas and concertos

and for a shorter work how bout...... regards for the spirit of joy?


sorry im too lazy to type out all that french stuff.

[ravel]

i have never played these pieces ( and dont think i ll be able to play them any time soon ) but prokofiev ' toccata , ravel's toccata and prokofiev's sonatas,  sound pretty exhausting,  so does scarbo and islamey. theres lots more but these are the ones that come to my mind now.

[Radix]

Medtner's "Night Wind" sonata is pretty taxing, mainly because of its length.