Top 10 Hardest Chopin Pieces for Piano

Fresh off the Chopin Competition (and closing in on Halloween), here’s a video that dives into 10 of the hardest piano works written by Chopin. Since the performer and piece descriptions were too long for the Youtube description, they have been moved to the comments where it will be pinned. Turn on subtitles for additional informal commentary!

Chopin difficulties:
Apart from the inherent virtuosity in most Chopin works, the song is central to Chopin's oeuvre. Every phrase, no matter if it is a long lyrical passage or a series of fast runs, must be shaped in a way that follows a natural singing line (something that Cortot and Rubinstein particularly excelled at). The technical difficulties in the Etudes themselves comprise of essentially all of the required techniques in Chopin's hardest major works (arpeggios, scales, octaves, double notes, etc.) as well as the major works in later Romantic composers, especially Rachmaninov.

Timestamps:
10. Etude Op.25 No.11 (7+)
0:00 Gyorgy Cziffra
1:08 Evgeny Kissin

9. Scherzo No.4, Op.54 (7+)
1:36 Beatrice Rana
2:17 Ivo Pogorelich

8. Etude Op.25 No.6 (7++)
2:58 Josef Lhevinne
3:29 Vladimir Ashkenazy
4:01 Mikhail Pletnev

7. Ballade No.2, Op.38 (7++)
4:30 Ivan Moravec
5:12 Evgeny Kissin

6. Polonaise-Fantaisie, Op.61 (7++)
5:59 Eliso Virsaladze
7:09 Rafał Blechacz

5. Piano Concerto No.2, Op.21 (7+)
8:06 Alfred Cortot
8:58 Vladimir Ashkenazy
9:31 Krystian Zimerman

4. Piano Concerto No.1, Op.11 (7++)
10:02 Artur Rubinstein
11:09 Krystian Zimerman

3. Ballade No.4, Op.52 (8)
12:15 Sviatoslav Richter
12:51 Krystian Zimerman
13:29 Seong-jin Cho

2. Sonata No.2, Op.35 (8)
14:07 Ivo Pogorelich
14:59 Sergei Rachmaninov
16:01 Maurizio Pollini

1. Sonata No.3, Op.58 (8)
17:24 Emil Gilels
19:15 Percy Grainger
19:53 Dinu Lipatti
20:27 Maria João Pires

Honorable mentions:
Etude Op.10/1, 10/2, 10/4, 25/8, Prelude Op.28/16, Sonata No.1, Variations Op.2, Allegro de Concert, Ballade No.3, Ballade No.1

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