Paul Barton?

I mean, he does brazenly ignore some tempo and dynamic markings in the piece Which is kind of his whole thing but yeah

Absolutely agree. And the first movement is one of the most beautiful pieces ever composed.

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Top three I would say

I just wrote a harder piece, I called it 'E major at 600bpm'

@@jamiepound53There's a difference between speed and actual difficulty... But again... 600bpm is mental😂

Hard, but far from top ten. Probably not even in top 100, if you consider Stockhausen, Finnissy, Ferneyhough, Sorabji. Here are some harder pieces that are also actual music: Alkan's solo concerto, Le Festin d'Esope, Liszt's Beethoven transcriptions (not sure if all of them), Feinberg's sonatas, Szymanowski's sonatas, Ives' sonatas, Mereaux' etudes, Liszt, Gaspard de la nuit, Alkan's Trois Grandes Etudes, Le Preux, Comme le vent, Godowsky's Chopin etudes, Fantasia Contrappuntistica, Liszt's Spanish Fantasy and Spanish Songbook, Liszt's transcription of Symphonie Fantastique, Beethoven's Hammerklavier, Alkan's Scherzo Focoso, Brahms' Paganini variations, some of Scriabin's sonatas, Rachmaninoff's 1st version of the 2nd sonata, 3 Movements from The Firebird. And there are many more, of course.

It was, between 1869 and 1906. Then it became a challenge to write something harder. So Ravel wrote Gaspard De La Nuit, and Scriabin wrote his 5th sonata. It has to be said in Scriabin's defense, that he wasn't actually trying to make the 5th purposefully hard. It just turned out that way. But Ravel knew exactly what he wanted to achieve, and he was largely successful. The beauty of both is that, while Islamey sounds ludicrously difficult, Gaspard doesn't, It just is next level difficult. If you want a piece that is utterly ludicrous, the piano transcription of Ravel's La Valse borders on the ludicrous. But there are other, more modern pieces which require advanced techniques that the likes of Balakirev, Ravel, and Scriabin would not have dreamt of.

It is also worth noting that this piece inspired what was possibly the most narcissistic piano pieces ever written. In a world where, 25 years later, numerous composers would write piano music for one-handed pianists, dedicated for professional pianists who had lost a hand or arm in the Great War (Ravel's concerto for the left hand is one of the most famous), Scriabin wrote his opus 9 prelude and nocturne. For the left hand. Not for someone else who'd lost their hand in a war or a tragic accident. No. He wrote this for himself because he injured his right hand practicing this piece - Balakirev's Islamey. Because his hands were too small for the job. As it was he regained full use of his right hand within five years. In Scriabin's defence, he went on to change piano music forever in 1907 with his 5th sonata.

why? im just asking because I do not understand the reference

@@alhths-n9w Scriabin injured his right hand while over-practicing this piece of music on the piano.

@@samh1996 oh ya i knew that, i thought he recovered tho

Rafał Blechacz

Thank you, maestro Rafal!

WOW! ❤

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Как вы правы, Ханна!