Are Chopin etudes really that hard to play at a professional level?.

[rovis77]

Are Chopin etudes really that hard to play at a professional level?.

[liszt-and-the-galops]

It depends on what you mean by "that hard."

If you mean "some of the hardest piano pieces ever written," then no; not even if you restrict it to standard repertoire.

If you mean "incredibly difficult and takes years if not more than a decade to master," then yes. Though personally the only reason that I'd bother to learn them is to train specific techniques that haven't been covered by basically every single set of Etudes ever written, since other composers have written better studies for a lot of the techniques present in the ChopEts. Also, most of the ChopEts are uninteresting as pieces of music.

[ranjit]

I think the Chopin etudes are definitely also the kinds of pieces that you are expected to play note perfect in performances or recordings since they are so overplayed.

I think that for many people, Chopin etude op 25 no 6 may be one of the hardest pieces in the repertoire.

[lelle]

It depends on what you mean by "that hard."

If you mean "some of the hardest piano pieces ever written," then no; not even if you restrict it to standard repertoire.

If you mean "incredibly difficult and takes years if not more than a decade to master," then yes. Though personally the only reason that I'd bother to learn them is to train specific techniques that haven't been covered by basically every single set of Etudes ever written, since other composers have written better studies for a lot of the techniques present in the ChopEts. Also, most of the ChopEts are uninteresting as pieces of music.

That's funny, I think rather the opposite. There are many really boring Etudes out there but the Chopin Etudes are actually enjoyable as pieces of music.

[gasplamey]

That's funny, I think rather the opposite. There are many really boring Etudes out there but the Chopin Etudes are actually enjoyable as pieces of music.

Agreed.

[liszt-and-the-galops]

That's funny, I think rather the opposite. There are many really boring Etudes out there but the Chopin Etudes are actually enjoyable as pieces of music.

Perhaps its just because I'm tired of Chopin's etudes, lol. I do remember that opinion starting to set in around the time of the last Chopin competition.

I've linked a few examples of better pieces as both studies and pieces of music below.
A very unique study in voicing.

It's highly probable that Saint-Saëns wrote this one as a direct response to Chopin Op. 25 no. 6, since Chopin's thirds study doesn't go particularly far.

A haunting study in the three-hand effect. Unfortunately not many recordings pull this off, and in my experience it seems to be speaker-dependent.

A study in octaves and stamina.

There's plenty of other examples, obviously. These are just ones off the top of my head that I think are neat as etudes.

[eee-_-]

No, considering that most "professional pianists" have likely learned these etudes in their teenage years. Also any piece is hard to play at professional level if you want to play it well enough.