Why Chopin is always more difficult for me

[pianodude]

Most of my friends say that Mozart Sonata KV 330 is a difficult piece to play.
For any reason, it is an easy piece for me. In general, I find that Chopin pieces are much more demanding to master.

Is it because of certain type of hand more suitable for certain type of music?

[presto agitato]

Is it because of certain type of hand more suitable for certain type of music?

I dont think so.

In my case, i always have problems with Chopin´s works due to the poly rhythms, the correct fingering and playing the left hand softer than the right hand (Nocturnes).

[jas]

I find Mozart more difficult. I think that's because you have much more rhythmical freedom with Chopin, and less fiddly finger-work (usually). And because I play so much Romantic music, rhythmical and dynamic evenness isn't something I've had to work on as often as I perhaps should.
Also, a lot of Chopin's music is technically pretty difficult, and some of it sits quite awkwardly under the fingers. If you compare Ballades 1 and 4, for example. I'm no Mozart expert but in my experience his stuff isn't usually too hard -- but then there's a lot of piano music by him I'm not familiar with so I could be wrong.
I suppose it depends what you're used to playing. Chopin himself could be metronomic when he wanted to be. And Mozart used rubato. But for mere mortals like us, it might not be so easy!
It'll come with practice. You'll get used to the necessary techniques and things as you use them more often.

Jas

[thierry13]

True. When you're abituated to some kind of music you find other periods harder. I did more romantic, then my teacher said i needed Mozart and Bach to develop technique. And i saw that too when i began approaching Modern repertoire. They are not harder, they just require pretty different technique. Day by day, I can see the progression to modern repertoire. So there are different technique types from one period to another.

[Lang]

Oh boy. The K.330 is not easy at all.

[beethoartok]

i find that mozart is harder to play well...interpretation etc.

[rebel1ns]

yeah ive been playing lots of romantic music, so i find contemporary stuff harder for some reason(prokofiev's Ten Pieces Scherzo to be specific)..although i like contemp music better

[howiehc]

Yeah i agree completely about how Mozart and Chopin simply need different techniques and you will probably get better in time. I started playing lots of Chopin.. and got quite comfortable with it... Then one day....... the first day i started the Mozart concerto 23 and I never felt so frustrated... the interpretation.. the clarity of each note.. and just the well .. i'll describe it as the "barenakedness" of how a single mistake can be heard so easily. So anywayz.. just techniques that we have to learn 

[Triton LE 76]

What  is most difficult is setting the melody's volume higher than the rest...
As an example, hit two keys at once and take one of them higher than the other

[Jacey1973]

.. Then one day....... the first day i started the Mozart concerto 23 and I never felt so frustrated... the interpretation.. the clarity of each note.. and just the well .. i'll describe it as the "barenakedness" of how a single mistake can be heard so easily. So anywayz.. just techniques that we have to learn 

Yes that is very true.

I am performing Mozart's sonata in D (K576) in a couple of months and I have also found that Mozart's music is very exposed - there is so much pressure!

 When I was choosing my repertoire with my teacher i said i find Mozart easier to play than Beethoven - he disagreed (he is a concert pianist and specialised in Mozart alot when he was younger) and i didn't really believe him until we started work on the Mozart.

I couldn't believe how picky he was on every single note of every single bar (as i only started studying with him this academinc year). But it has improved my playing and understanding of Mozart immensely. Mozart's music doesn't always appear difficult on the page but it is the detail and inerpretation later on in the learning process that is the most challenging part.

I'm terrified that my nerves will ruin all the fast runs and fiddely phrases on the day of my recital when i have spent so long practising them!

[Sasha42196]

As far as the degree of technical difficulty, Chopin is definitely more demanding for me.  However, as it was before mentioned, in Mozart's music there is nowhere to hide.  One wrong note would stick out like a sore thumb, whereas with Chopin, plenty of wrong keys can be hidden in the flurry of notes.  I think Mozart requires more maturity and interpretative skills. 

[galonia]

I find the difficulty with Mozart is in making it sound like more than just a scales and arpeggios exercise!  It's so important to have clarity and as everyone else has already said, no place to hide if you have a wrong note.

However, Chopin for me is like a nightmare.  I was brought up with no repertoire from the Romantic period - my teacher fed me a strict diet of Bach, Classical sonatinas until I started to play Classical sonatas, and 20th C works (for some reason I was really good at Bartok and loved his music, so I was allowed to play endless amounts of his stuff).  I had a tendency, during performances, to suddenly think how ridiculous the romantic music was, and would start dramatising it until my teacher got too embarrassed to let me play it anymore.

Then, I suddenly decided I'm going to play Chopin, and started with the 4th Ballade.  Of course, it was a total disaster, and walked away from Chopin feeling very disillusioned with him.  Plus so many people perform Chopin (badly) at eisteddfods, and I just wondered what the obsession was with him.

Last year, I heard someone play the most beautiful and intense Chopin ever (in the same week, I also heard someone else play the worst Chopin I could ever imagine) - it inspired me to try again.  My teacher suggested I work on some Nocturnes - not as ambitious as a Ballade! - and I'm finding that I'm developing a taste for it.  The notes themselves are easy, but getting over my own mental barries has been!  Maybe one day I'll have the courage to face the Ballade again.

[marialice]

The difficulty of Chopin and Mozart is just so different, they ask for different skills. But to answer your question: yes, I think certain types of hands are more suitable for Chopin than others. My hands are quite small. In Mozart pieces I have never had trouble with that, but sometimes in Chopin pieces I find sections that would have been a bit easier if my hands were a bit larger.

At the moment I am refreshing both the KV 330 and Chopin impromptus op 29 no 1. The sonata is a lot easier for me. What might help is that my father always listened to Mozart a lot, so I was exposed to a lot of Mozart when I grew up.

[invsblmn]

A lot of people play Chopin badly (probably including me) and most casual listeners can't tell. However, a four-year-old will know when a Mozart piece is being poorly performed. Chopin is more technical, and technical skill can cover a lack of musicality. For me, the K330 and K545 are not easy. Mozart, to me, is still the most difficult and most fundamental composer. I think you can pretty much tell how well a pianist has mastered the fundamentals of playing the instrument by listening to him playing the K330 or K545.

[pianomann1984]

When I was choosing my repertoire with my teacher i said i find Mozart easier to play than Beethoven - he disagreed (he is a concert pianist and specialised in Mozart alot when he was younger) and i didn't really believe him until we started work on the Mozart.

Really?  Who is your teacher, if you dont mind my asking?  My teacher is also an established  concert pianist he always seems a lot more fussy about detail in Beethoven.  He doesn't believe in the snobbery that surrounds so much of the performing of both of the composers' works, and often says that neither composer wrote their works to be argued about - they wrote them to be enjoyed.  Son maybe the reason that you find Mozart so much easier is because you enjoy at and thus have a better instinct for it? 

I won't pretend that I know the key to Mozart, Beethoven or Chopin, but I find Beethoven easiest, then Chopin and then Mozart (they all have their difficulties!) - for Beethoven, everything that you need to perform it is on the page, but the difficulty is to observe them all without seeming like a machine! In Chopin there is that much more detail to observe (plus there is always the subtle tone colour issue), and in Mozart there is nextto no detail on the page.  My personal problem with Mozart is that I love it too much, so I don't necessarily spend the time that is required making it 100% secure.  It's far too easy to be sucked into a false sense of security and therein lies the difficulty.

[C-A]

I have almost no prob with chopin, but Mozart...
Mozart's pieces are tough to play, even the easy ones like K.545, the mistakes made are easy to hear, compared to Chopin, like his Military Polonaise- you can't or can barely hear a mistake, since that piece is chock full of Chords- so the mistakes are blurred by the melodic line.