Top 10 Hardest Schubert Pieces for Piano

[@calebhu6383]

What is your favorite piece by Schubert?

[@nikolasbradley3608]

Basic answer but probably his impromptus and Wonderer Fantasie. Although, I quite like Liszt's arrangement of the Wonderer for pf and orch

[@pseudo_klavier]

​@@nikolasbradley3608Me too Liszt Wanderer fantasy

[@jameshall401]

Probably the Impromtus, Wanderer Fantasy, And B-flat major sonata.

[@pianoplaynight]

Last 3 Sonatas, piano pieces d946, trio op 100, the song cycles...

[@elijahlora224]

Definitely Fantasie for four hands

[@chingleminyen]

tfw you're practicing a schubert sonata and you see the repeat sign 5 minutes into the first movement:

[@hdbrot]

It‘s Schubert telling you: "You clearly need more practice. Play it again."

[@erika6651]

It's called the G major piano sonata. And you play the repeat. And you love it. ❤❤❤

[@nitnutz7650]

For the B Major Sonata the same - and the interlude back to the beginning is just breathtaking ❤

[@antonrubinsteinisthebest]

Just pretend that you don't see it.

[@sophia6_8hemiola-circleof5]

That’s probably at the end of the exposition. That repeat is important (and probably there) because of the form. If it’s in sonata form.

[@jameshall401]

Bro I love this series of "10 hardest pieces by ----", it's helping me find so much new music to play and work on, thanks man

[@Salvejohnny93]

Schubert and Brahms are just so good at writing awkwardly for the hands. Even Rachmoninoff and Liszt had some reasoning behind their stretches. But I find myself looking at a Schubert or Brahms section and just asking, "Why?"

[@blacksky492]

I think irs cause they lowkey mid composers

[@SpaghettiToaster]

They just weren't as natural with the piano as Liszt and Rachmaninoff.

[@meowmeowcat6013]

@@SpaghettiToaster Or they just simply don't care. In fact I think they both lowkey had the "f u lmao" attitude with piano writing.

[@Emanuel-Turhani]

​@@blacksky492 no way you said that

[@simonalbrecht9435]

They just cared more about the musical idea than everything being perfectly idiomatic for the piano.

[@isaacthrpenquinez1098]

So glad you recognized the difficulty of d. 958 one of my favorite sonatas and one of my favorite Schubert pieces (all time is 959)!

[@gnome8979]

I'm surprised he put 960 and not 959 i always thought 959 was the more difficult of the two

[@isaacthrpenquinez1098]

@@gnome8979 fr, 959 with the arpeggios, close attention to crescendos and accents and emotionally complex contrasts were my issues. D. 960 is a more easier to understand and an incredibly beautiful piece that is a little easier to memorize and interpret than 959. Mr. Caleb isn't too biased because 960 is a hard to pull off, Homer epic-like piece, but in my opinion not quite as much as D. 959.

[@calebhu6383]

I think you're right on second thought, D.959 seems to be the more technically challenging. In any case they would all be rated 7+

[@isaacthrpenquinez1098]

@@calebhu6383 At any rate, don’t bother updating the video, this agreement will stay in the comments section 👍

[@ainsimpsonpiano2125]

I’ve been waiting for this! Love Schubert but the textures can be so hard. My old teacher back at the con, and his wife, are prob the foremost piano duo in Australia. He told me they just don’t bother playing Fantasy in Fmin anymore cause it’s just too hard to pull off

[@dfkfgjfg]

I'm pleased you put the trio at the top of the list. The vast majority of it is totally fine and normally I don't care about length, and can play anything up to 3 hours-ish, but chamber music hits different. Playing a physically and musically demanding chamber piece for that long really takes it out of you and Schubert scatters so much difficult shit throughout so you never get a proper break. The last movement is particularly horrific. I recently played the Messiaen quartet and it's nothing compared to Schubert Eb Trio (still hard tho lol). On another note, I'm going to be sightreading the Violin Fantasie in C with someone soon and I can barely manage the other 9 pieces on this list (I've learnt about half of them) 😭 Wish me luck

[@jaypeej7830]

The d934 fantasy is more difficult than the d929 trio

[@ainsimpsonpiano2125]

I agree. I’m playing Arpreggione ATM which is mostly pretty easy but then suddenly there are these figures with some repeated notes around black keys and they just don’t fit the hand at all

[@waverly2468]

I'm a self taught pianist getting into Schubert's works. That red-colored Dover book of the Sonatas has a lot to explore. I'm glad somebody assures me that some of it sounds pretty but is really hard to play.

[@thekenanski8789]

YAY! I love the recordings you picked, I wasn't aware of a lot of them and they're really stunning (especially Pires' impromptus...). Also happy to see the D929 trio getting its due; the number of performances I've heard where the pianist butchers even the supposedly simple second movement is crazy. And of course that fourth movement is a monster, especially on modern concert grands. (It's also just my favorite piece of music, maybe ever, so...)

[@PushkaryovVsevolod]

Спасибо вам за шикарную подборку!

[@westernkentucky5956]

What a great video. I agree with all of these making the list. Thanks for putting 958 on there in its proper place. :)

[@benharmonics]

Very interesting list! This one really reminded me of how many amazing recordings of chamber music there are. But the recording that impressed me the most was the Erlkönig. I have to listen to that version now! I hope to be able to play that piece with one of my singer friends one day, but the octaves 😭

[@liamdrakepiano]

I've completed with the first movement of the E-flat trio and suffice it to say it is the hardest trio in the standard repertoire I've ever played. The ensemble is endlessly exposed yet has to be flawless and the piano part has sooo many potential pitfalls.

[@vollmitwildenrosen]

I like your choice of pianists, thank you!

[@dmachine07]

1. How come you didn't include chamber pieces in your lists before? 2. When is Bach coming?

[@johnphillips5993]

I gotta say, a lot of Schubert Lieder have pretty evil piano parts. Rastlose Liebe, Der Musensohn, and Die junge Nonne are all brutal

[@tungholau2457]

Top 10 hardest of Shostakovich, Schoenburg, Bartok, Stravinsky please.

[@turtle945]

19:35 whats a page of wanderer fantasy doin here

[@Snebek2]

Lmao

[@calebhu6383]

It's the secret prize

[@chwu04-ne2df]

I would personally put D. 959 over Erlkonig. Erlkonig is physically taxing but otherwise not that difficult; it doesn't demand much accuracy or finger dexterity and is musically much easier than D. 958-960. Also I would nerf Eb trio to 7++ because while it's long, exposed, and hard to perform in its entirety it doesn't have any seriously difficult spots. I don't think it's harder than Beethoven 4 and 5.

[@perfumeil1]

glad to know some other repertoire from Schubert

[@elijahlora224]

Can't wait to take a crack at number 1💪

[@LM-oz2sc]

Can you make top 10 hardest Bortkiewicz pieces

[@anhducduong0105]

Great list? How about Mendelssohn next man?

[@snowcarriagechengcheng-hun3454]

Thanks for uploading!

[@ollir9352]

Third Variation of Mvt. IV from the Trout Quintet is definitely one of Schubert's more difficult passages.

[@markus7894]

In the Trout Quintet, I agree with the first extract (1. movement), but even harder than the second extract (last movement) is the 3rd variation of the 4th movement (kzbin.info/www/bejne/iH7VZaN6fNRjgacsi=DmmgXMIFCKhfubzG&t=1656), which is really really tricky!

[@kahunaguruguru9809]

Hey, great video, would you consider making a discord server for your fans?

[@knownasdark]

thanks for making good content this is really entertaining :)

[@nicb4589]

Impossible to not think how the Brahms video would be different with chamber. After getting chewed up and spit out by the Horn Trio..

[@meowmeowcat6013]

bruh. I understand your feelings, so damn much. His op 101 first movement really murdered me. The clarinet trio is another murderer.

[@4mon622]

What do you think of Yudina's D960? If I'm not misremembering I think Richter liked it quite a bit.

[@Ivan_1791]

I would love one for Mendelssohn. I am really curious to see how difficult you find his Trio No.1 in D minor.

[@calebhu6383]

I've read through it before; it's very virtuosic but not as exposed as the Schubert Eb trio imo.

[@Ivan_1791]

@@calebhu6383 So maybe 7++?

[@calebhu6383]

@@Ivan_1791 Maybe. Somewhere around 7+ I'd say

[@robkeeleycomposer]

I’ve always thought the Wanderer Fantasy is a pretty awful piece, and I normally love Schubert. Fine as any of the solo sonatas are, above all the B flat and G major, I’m convinced that his finest piano music was written for piano 4-hands. Much richer and with more and more interesting counterpoint.

[@luzer-j4k]

great!can you make a Bach top10?

[@ucmcc]

다 너무좋네요.

[@SkibidiChoppyDaddy]

Where is Piano Sonata no.18 in G major????? For me, that is number 1!

[@cjames0723]

That is my favorite Schubert work but it is not very difficult in comparison to those listed (at least not technically speaking)

[@SkibidiChoppyDaddy]

That Sonata is maybe bot technicaly very difficult, but the touch, the length, the musicality needed makes it the hardest schubert piece, for me at least

[@calebhu6383]

It's in the honorable mentions

[@SkibidiChoppyDaddy]

@@calebhu6383 Yeah I saw, but I said where is in the top 10, I understand tho, its kinda subjective

[@ralphiesal]

PERIOD

[@МуродТанжихолов]

Can you do this for Bártok and Prokofiev at some point?

[@calebhu6383]

Prokofiev is here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/f4iqcpdud66SnZY

[@vinifebriantiputri944]

The #1 is Nunber 1 for me ❤

[@Damuvader]

Do you think the fourth movement of the trout Quintet is as difficult as the first?

[@thekenanski8789]

Fourth movement is harder imo. The first movement is really not that difficult technically; the passage in the video fits very well under the hands and is just a bit jumpy. (It can be tricky to get it together with the strings, though.)

[@Damuvader]

​@@thekenanski8789thanks a lot. I just played the fourth movement, that's why i wanted to know lol

[@bernardtanpianist]

Looking back, I have no idea how I did the Fantasie for violin and piano. Probably going to avoid performing it for the rest of my life! 😂

[@josephliu968]

You should do Bartok next lol

[@dzordzszs]

No Nyiregyhazi for the Wanderer? Imo the best version

[@4mon622]

How much more difficult is Liszt's transcription of Erlkönig compared to the original?

[@chwu04-ne2df]

It's quite a bit more difficult, although I don't think the original deserves to be on this list at all. The original is physically taxing due to the repeated chords throughout but otherwise not very difficult. It doesn’t really demand any serious amount of accuracy or finger dexterity and is musically much easier than D. 958-960.

[@jpj5896]

@@chwu04-ne2df agree

[@diffugerenives]

Richter said that level of difficulty was unhealthy. After he performed it, he never played it again.

[@paulfievet9301]

Out of curiosity, why do you avoid period instrument performances ?

[@calebhu6383]

I think if technology can make something sound better, that's what we should go with.

[@paulfievet9301]

Better in what way? Piano evolution in the 19th and 20th centuries was mainly driven by a need for louder instruments for performance reasons. You cannot say that the sound quality has improved at all. In fact, many (as myself) would argue that in the search for a louder and clearer sound in the 20th century, pianos have lost a lot of richness and depth in the sound which characterised 19th century pianos, which can be heard comparing modern and period performances.

[@calebhu6383]

@@paulfievet9301 If you think they sound better, that's great for you. I tend to think modern pianos sound better, and I also prefer the touch, sensitivity, and sustain of modern pianos. It's all subjective.

[@apz202]

For Erlkonig on the violin you have to play both the piano part and the voice.

[@sean-kb4wr]

Could you do the best melodies of Rachmaninov

[@hypermahler5873]

I was expecting the a-major sonata to be at number 1

[@calebhu6383]

All three of the last sonatas are rated 7+ imo

[@tungholau2457]

schubert most difficult piece should be wanderer fantasy, especially the 3rd mvt ending. Why don't you post the 3rd mvt apreggios ending?

[@calebhu6383]

The E-Flat Trio is definitely harder.

[@tungholau2457]

@@calebhu6383 How hard?

[@simoneliloni6117]

Why don't you like period instruments interpretations?

[@fruitsarescary4672]

cooleroni

[@nattyco]

My favourite is the G flat Impromptu and the hardest, for me anyway, is the Wanderer Fantasy.

[@clement2780]

piano trios quartet quintet songs

[@BlueberryYogurtSmoothieEnjoyer]

Godowsky next?

[@jaypeej7830]

You're ranking is a bit way off. The D.934 fantasy is the most difficult, it's one of the hardest duo in the entire repertoire.. "The difficult work was "calculated to display Slavík's virtuoso [violin] technique" and is demanding for both instruments. According to pianist Nikolai Lugansky, the Fantasy "is the most difficult music ever written for the piano", and "more difficult than all of Rachmaninov’s [piano] concertos put together"

[@calebhu6383]

I disagree. I've played it and I don't think it's as hard as the trio. I mentioned Lugansky's opinion already in the subtitles but I think it's quite the exaggeration.

[@Bruceykeys]

I wish I could appreciate his music but he bores me to tears

[@LkFia_]

Moszkowski when?

[@nitnutz7650]

There is no composer I listen to more on original period instruments then Schubert. I think no other composer‘s sound was that much meant for a period Hammerklavier

[@metodoinstinto]

Whoever put this video together is QUITE CLEARLY not a pianist.

[@calebhu6383]

and why would you say that?

[@FirstGentleman1]

I thought the Wanderer Fantasy was the most difficult piece. They say it's just as difficult as Beethovens Hammerklavier Sonate and not even Schubert himself was able to play it. Is that Piano Trio movement really that more difficult, really?

[@antonrubinsteinisthebest]

Who is saying it's at the level of Hammerklavier? It's at the most the level of Op. 111, and that's being lenient

[@FirstGentleman1]

@@antonrubinsteinisthebest I read it in a booklet. It was part of a DVD. Brendel playing the Hammerklavier Sonate and as a bonus on that DVD, Julius Katchen played the Wanderer Fantasy in an insane tempo.

[@chwu04-ne2df]

Lol no wanderer fantasy is on the same level as appassionata. Not even close to op. 101/111 let alone the hammerklavier.

[@claudesiari8188]

Son détestable