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Hok Yan Wong
Mar 29 2010, 09:09 AM
QUOTE(Mad Tom @ Mar 28 2010, 02:57 AM) *

QUOTE(Debra @ Mar 27 2010, 05:41 PM) *

the Rach 3

Very, very, very difficult. Definitely!

Most difficult? Almost certainly not.


Well! But you can call Rach 3 is the most difficult bunch among all of them right?

For me, I think the Tchaikovsky's 1st Concerto can be on the list, same difficulty with the Rach 3.... agree?

Generally, if yous can't for all repertoires in COMPOSER - I suggest JS Bach. You've need full attention on what the 4-tier melody are happening, which you'll never find such things in the other composer - the top ones are especially the Toccatas and Fugue BWV565 after it is arr. by F. Busoni. Indeed, it sounds like my energietic after arranged to the pianos as it is just magical that Bach can write so many lines that a normal person and compose things like that in the computer! (I mean - Copying lines through orchestration)

I have tried Bach's BWV565 and it took me six years to master it. (I am now in Grade 10 - so I starts playing in Grade 4 - just for this repertoire). Some say another piece - Chaconne in D is also a big deal - with more complex lines than BWV565, and I took about a year or so to master that (how come!!!)
Edwardo
Mar 29 2010, 10:35 AM
QUOTE(Invidia @ Mar 25 2010, 08:00 PM) *

Rachmaninoff's recording of 39/6 obviously can't be faulted- he wrote it.


That's an interesting assertion - it made me think of the notional of intentional fallacy from literary criticism. In any case, I wasn't casting aspersions on Rachmanioff's recording per se, but it was made a very long time ago and is pretty lo-fi, to be honest.

In terms of Lisitsa's approach to non-flashy music, then may I recommend her Fur Elise and, even more, her Traumerei, not to mention her first movement of Beethoven's "Moonlight" Sonata. I would also recommend her recording of Schubert's Schwanengesang.
Chopinzee
Mar 29 2010, 06:57 PM
QUOTE(Invidia @ Mar 25 2010, 10:43 PM) *

QUOTE(Chopinzee @ Mar 25 2010, 08:36 PM) *

I'd say Chopins etudes are much more than studies. Up until his first set, etudes by other composers admittedly had been purely mechanical by nature, but Chopin was the first to imbue them with poetic beauty.


I agree, and know what you meant by calling them 'more than studies', but regardless they are studies. I wrote an essay on the development of the piano study and there are a lot of things the Chopin etudes have in common with earlier studies such as Cramer and Moszkowski. Chopin brought something new to the genre which transformed it inspiring Liszt, Debussy etc. It is interesting that years later in the Debussy Etudes, he tries to almost reverse what Chopin did by stripping them of what you called poetic beauty and saying 'an etude is an etude'. And to be honest, I agree with Debussy; however beautiful an etude by any composer may be, fundamentally it was written based on a particular aspect of technique. After Debussy, with composers such as Ligeti, Nancarrow etc was when you could really say the nature of the piano etude was really changed as they became more like personal compositional exercises rather than technical, for example Nancarrow's experiments with piano rolls are called studies, but they are studies OF the piano rather than FOR the piano.

Anyway, coming back from my tangent, the Ligeti etudes are among the most difficult pieces, surely? They are trickier than any Chopin or Liszt etude at least.
That would probably explain why i never really liked the Debussy etudes, as music to listen to, while almost everything else he wrote is always in my CD player. Yes i can see an influence from Cramer in the Chopin etudes, but i'm not familiar with Moszkowskis', though i think he was a later composer than Chopin.
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