Difficulty of concertos?

[Remon]

Hey everybody!

I would like to know: how difficult you think the following piano concertos are? (scale from 1 to 10; 1 is like the "easiest" concertos and 10 is like the hardest, maybe unplayable , concertos)

=> Beethoven 3rd Concerto
=> Beethoven 5th Concerto (Emperor)
=> Brahms 1st Concerto
=> Brahms 2nd Concerto
=> Chopin 2nd Concerto
=> Rachmaninoff 3rd Concerto

Thanx! Remon

[pskim]

=> Beethoven 3rd Concerto = 6
=> Beethoven 5th Concerto (Emperor) =7
=> Brahms 1st Concerto =8
=> Brahms 2nd Concerto =8
=> Chopin 2nd Concerto =7
=> Rachmaninoff 3rd Concerto =10

I'm basing the scores by the technical difficulty.

[titos]

Beethoven 3rd: 6
Beethoven 5th: 7
Brahms 1st: 8
Brahms 2nd: 10
Chopin 2nd: 7
Rachmaninov 3rd: 9
  The fact, that I give 10 to Brahms 2nd and 9 to Rachmaninov 3rd, may seem strange. However, technique and music can not be separated. And I believe that Brahms 2nd requires more musical and technical abilities and stamina than 3rd Rach. Well, after all these are only personal views...

[Remon]

Thanks for your reactions!
Now I've got one more question:
do you think it is possible to learn in 2 months ONLY THE FIRST movement of:

-Beethoven 3rd?
-One of the Brahms concertos?

Greetz, Remon

[titos]

  It is difficult to answer to your question. I don't know how fast you learn or how experienced you are. I would say that in general it is definitely possible to learn the first movement of these concertos in 2 months, if you have of course A LOT of time to devote to practising! But, I am not sure if you will have (especially for the Brahms!) the time to feel comfortable with the music and discover all the depth of it. Well, Zimermann was practising Brahms 2nd for 10 years (!) before playing it in public...

[mahavishnu]

SOMEONE AGREES WITH ME ABOUT THE BRAHMS 2ND!  Thank you so much Titos.  Yes, the Brahms is so colorful rich, golden, scarlet, warm, it emanates maturity in it's style.  This is MY favorite piano concerto of all time.   It is the hardest of all and I would rather learn this than the Rach 3.  But......they say brahms is only for old people to play.    We can only try...

[titos]

  Many pianists with a good taste would agree about the beauty and difficulty of Brahms 2nd mahavishnu!
  I had the luck to listen to a live performance of it by Nelson Freire a few days ago. It was a sensation! Freire deserves 100% to be regarded as a GREAT pianist! His tone projection and the maturity of his general approach were astonishing! Well, he is 60 years old now, but I think we have to become familiar with the score from an early age, if we have the ambition to master the concerto later in our lives. And this applies to all substantial pieces of the piano repertoire, I think.

[la_carrenio2003]

Beethoven 3rd: 1
Chopin 2: 4
Brahms 1st: 5
Beethoven 5th: 6
Rach 3: 7
Brahms 2: 10

I don't want to look pedantic but a  profesional standard pianist can learn the 1st movement of Beethoven's 3rd in 3 weeks maximum playing every day 4 hours. The 1st movement of Brahms 1st can be learned in 2 months or less under the same conditions. About Brahms 2nd I don't dare to say the same thing: that's a piece of hard work... When I learned the Rach 3 the 1st movement took me a month with the big cadenza. Rachmaninoff is very pianistic, very playable I mean. Play it is not as hard as it sounds, believe me...

[Rach3]

I agree, much of the Rachmaninoff is quite pianistic.

[eddie92099]

I think the Rach 3 is much more pianistic that Rach 2 though,
Ed

[abe]

Horwitz learned the  entire Brahms second concerto in 2 or 3 months, but then again thats horwitz we're talking about.

[in_love_with_liszt]

What would anyone say is the hardest piano concerto (technically AND in terms of emotional expression)? I've heard mixed opinions, I know everyone holds Rach 3 in such high regard, but many people say that Brahms 2 is much more difficult, not only on the technical spectrum, but controlling it emotionally as well. Or is there perhaps an even more daunting concerto that exists that is not known as universally?

[klavierkonzerte]

actually brahms 2 & rach 3 are moderate dificulty for a profesional pianist,that's why there are alot of recordings of those pieces.

there are many concertos from the 19 century
harder than brahms and rach.

henselt for example,there are only 3 recordings of this concerto & one of them is played poorly.

[rhapsody in orange]

hmm this may be a bit irrelevant here but does anyone here have a recording of rach3 and kind enough to send to me? I'm currently looking for it -grins- would be very much appreciated

[kempff]

Beethoven 3rd is relatively easier than hos other concertos with the exception of no.2.

I learnt the whole 3rd concerto in 1 month.

[Spatula]

hmm this may be a bit irrelevant here but does anyone here have a recording of rach3 and kind enough to send to me? I'm currently looking for it -grins- would be very much appreciated

if you're looking for R3 recording...go to your local music shop because there's dozens of recordings of that one.

[Nipoch]

The most difficult concerto is the one of Busoni. I think...

[BoliverAllmon]

also anything atonal are tough as nails to learn. Memorization is the hardest aspect of it.

[stefano]

 Rach three is very difficult, but its very pianistic like you said.  Prokofiev 2nd is very difficult and perhaps is overtaking rach 3 in difficulty.  Brahms Second is one of my favorits,but the last movement is sort of a let down in the ending, it seems Brahms just rushed to an ending.  Rachmaninov 2nd is the perfect concerto in my opinion.  People are always interested in the difficulty of pieces. it doesnt really matter. Alkan has the most difficult music, but its mostly Crap. Tchaikovsky 2nd is also very difficult, but not the best concerto.