h

[jspark88]

jk

[Ziggy]

Not quite as hard as the Mach 3rd, but slightly harder than FI.

[Dazzer]

Mach 3? what is this, breaking the sound barrier now?

[iumonito]

Hard.

Scarbo alone is up there with Islamey.  Now add two very contrasting additional movements that are pretty hard on their own accord.

If you want to play Ravel, the Pavane and his Sonatine are much better entry points.

[thalbergmad]

I understand that Ravel wrote Scarbo with the intention of writing something more difficult and better the Islamey. I say he succeeded.

[Floristan]

I understand that Ravel wrote Scarbo with the intention of writing something more difficult and better the Islamey. I say he succeeded.

Certainly better musically.

[Fugue]

 Maybe its just me, but I say the Gaspard de la nuit is the hardest peice I have ever heard. Mainly because of the finger twisting in Scarbo.

[nanabush]

K Gibet is also very hard....Look at the very strange chords, It takes about 30 seconds to decode one chord, for there are a huge span of notes, and each hand is at opposite end of the keyboard...Along with the droning B flat which never ends, this piece is creepy... The huge chord things sound freaky too, kinda like the town is complete silence, and there's a random bell or something, while the guy hanging is swinging back and forth, jees I read a story or poem behind this, and it's kinda creepy....

[jj]

I learned Ondine and Scarbo this year.  Strangely I found Ondine to be harder than Scarbo - maybe because I've got "smallish" hands, I'm used to doing the light twisty things in Scarbo.  Ondine was a lesson in patience to get the right colours.  I think difficulty depends on your own personal technical strengths, if you're not used to playing fast, light arpeggiated passages then it will be fairly hard (but so worth when you master it!)

[nanabush]

You learned both and skipped the scariest one? lol.... Gibet is my fav. probly also because it is obviously easier than the other two, and scarbo is just too fregin long... gawd 25 pages and very difficult too aaa shivers just thinking about starting that.  Imagine just starting, you're like ok don't know what to do, only 25 more pages...

[apion]

I learned Ondine and Scarbo this year.  Strangely I found Ondine to be harder than Scarbo -

I agree that Ondine is the toughest.  You must practice, practice, practice.

BTW, Gaspard de la Nuit is one of the top 10 most difficult pieces for solo piano in the standard repertoire.  Tougher than Islamey.

[Dazzer]

pages is hardly an accurate measure of the length of a piece. i mean... most of the pages are just made up of a few bars with tons of notes that's all.

[nanabush]

But even if it's only a few measures with tons of notes in them, that doesn't make it easier...And who here prefers le Gibet over the other two?

[thomj]

can you really seperate one movement from the rest?

[lostinidlewonder]

*slaps head* why do people keep thinking scarbo is easier than ondine?

[BoliverAllmon]

*slaps head* why do people keep thinking scarbo is easier than ondine?

I don't know. I know a pianist who was talking about Gaspard. He says that he can "handle" ondine, but his brain can't think fast enough for scarbo.

boliver

[Dazzer]

i tried scarbo for a month... ended up with tons of reading errors by the 4th page i gave up try again some other day.