Chopin etudes order of difficulty

[bach-busoni chaconne]

Hi everyone,
What is your ranking of the difficulties of the 24 main Chopin etudes from Op.10 and Op.25?
This is my ranking (hardest-->easiest) of the 12 that I consider the most difficult: Op.10 No.2, Op.25 No.6, Op.10 No.4, Op. 25 No.11, Op.10 No.1, Op.25 No.8, Op.25 No.10, Op.10 No.7, Op.10 No.8, Op.10 No.11, Op.25 No.4, Op.25 No.12.
What are your opinions on this topic? I'm thinking about advising some of my friends on the order they should learn these, so I would really appreciate any opinions!

[liszt-and-the-galops]

10/6 is the easiest. 25/7, 10/9, 25/1, and 25/2 are all also pretty easy. So are the Trois Nouvelles Etudes.

The hardest could be any of 10/1, 10/2, 10/4, 10/7, 10/8, 25/4, 25/6, 25/8, 25/10, or 25/11, depending on what you're good at.

10/3, 10/5, 10/10, 10/11, 10/12, 25/3, 25/5, 25/9, and 25/12 are in kind of an intermediate tier, though some of them (10/10 and 10/12 in particular) are more difficult than others.

Hope this helps! :)

[dizzyfingers]

Hi everyone,
What is your ranking of the difficulties of the 24 main Chopin etudes from Op.10 and Op.25?
This is my ranking (hardest-->easiest) of the 12 that I consider the most difficult: Op.10 No.2, Op.25 No.6, Op.10 No.4, Op. 25 No.11, Op.10 No.1, Op.25 No.8, Op.25 No.10, Op.10 No.7, Op.10 No.8, Op.10 No.11, Op.25 No.4, Op.25 No.12.
What are your opinions on this topic? I'm thinking about advising some of my friends on the order they should learn these, so I would really appreciate any opinions!

As you might guess, a lot of people have had this question, resulting in more than a few videos on the topic on YT.  Here's the most recent - popped up on my feed last night. 

Ranking the videos is one thing, but articulating why is a whole 'nother challenge...

&t=10s

[eee-_-]

this is difficult to answer , since different people find different etudes more challenging , for me 25-6 was one of the easier ones , one of my first etudes that took less than a month to complete while 10-4 considered easier than 25-6 took me 2+ months to play somewhat accurately with perfect legato ( i am still working on it to make it better ) , also 25-11 which looks hard and seems very impressive is quite easy .

for me personally , the hardest ones ( by no ranking ) are - 10-1 , 10-2 , 25-4 , 10-8( its not the arpeggios that are hard to get its the colors )

Chopin etudes are more than just " etudes " they are quite beautiful pieces , so part of the technical challenge is to play the beautifully with a good tone

[essence]

that took less than a month to complete

I'm no sure what you mean by 'complete'. It isn't like building a house. Most music of quality takes a lifetime. It is 'complete' when the pianist has died!

[eee-_-]

oh from complete i do not mean perfect , i mean to get it to final tempo from first bar to last bar without making any mistakes and with barely passable musicality , when i say it took me that much time to "complete" i only refer to getting it up to temp without making any errors with the notes , working on musicality is a different matter .

[essence]

Thanks. Plus, I assume, the right dynamics? 25-6 up to speed and right dynamics? In the first two bars?

Trifonov can;t do it. The thirds are not completely together, or consistent, in the first two bars.

i=0bj8QHsMRy-IvBS3

Just noticed - in the falling thirds around 1:20 he uses his left hand. That part is notoriously difficult.

Difficult to find any technical faults in Kissin.

i=-BwPbKFaYqiiZ8sA

[essence]

One of the comments says he practiced this for ten years before performing.

i=niLxyvPAQAHus-7d

Sounds pretty complete for my ears!

It is surely one of the top 3 hardest etudes, if not the top.

Interesting fingering with the 4-1 on the first note.

ps. I spent a couple of months on this 50 years ago, I have another 118 months to go.

[eee-_-]

well , any etude of chopin to truly grasp would take years , what i meant was to simply get it up to tempo with decent dynamics ( for me thats the part where you start actually learning the piece, understanding what you want with it) , from that i mean not doing a ff where its a p , and for me personally maybe because i had to practice double thirds before and i was familiar to them this was not in my top 3 , it would prob be 5th ( top 4 would prob be 10-4,10-2,25,4,10-8 )or below . to me getting the thirds right was not the hard part the hard part was ( and is ) getting it to sound good , still havent gotten that right . as for performing i wouldnt perform any chopin etude in a family gathering before 1 year of practice (except maybe 25-2) and something like 25-6 ( to get it musically "right" or decent ) wouldnt play that before 3 years , also thanks for introducing me to the recording of josef lhevinne .