A question from my child which I cannot answer. Hardest bassoon concerto or sonata and the easiest.

Years ago a friend who went to Birmingham conservatoire said in his view the Hummel was the most difficult concerto (harder than andante and hungarian rondo) - I think there are some tricky corners rather than it being incredibly virtuosic. But it doesn't SOUND so impressive...

Dunno really, I'm sure there are a lot of simple early classical concerti; I suspect hardest sonatas are C20th and French...

Syllabi might give you a clue, of course... but really, who cares? Play stuff that you like

You know what kids are like, they need to quantify everything! Someone said Jolviet but it sounds so boring too!

Probably there are harder ones, but the hardest concerto I've tried to learn is the Francaix concerto.

Chris

That would sound right... Jack Brymer said in his clarinet technique book that something by Francaix wasn't possible to play with technique and instruments of the 1970s...

How is he measuring difficulty anyway? Most technically demanding? Requiring the most effort to give a convincing musical performance? Most impressive for listeners with its virtuosic flourishes? Most well-known and therefore fewest places to hide?

Most technically difficult, I assume. He's only little!

The Hummel is famed as being difficult due mainly to one octave jumping passage which you can see a very good bassoonist play here: [url=https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151584124712324]https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151584124712324
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THe problem with Hummel is that it sounds easy to the listener when in reality it is not.

The Jolivet is very hard and I know a many top bassoonists who have purposely avoided this piece... It is however one of my favorite bassoon pieces.

Anouther is the Francaix Concerto.