Top 9 Hardest Piano Concertos
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- Опубліковано 6 вер 2024
- A list of nine of the most difficult piano concertos up to 1931. These concertos are both musically and technically complex, and although "hard" is an ambiguous term, it can be said that all the concertos covered in this list require the highest level of virtuosity.
![Ranking the best violin concertos 🎻 [Difficulty Tier List]](/img/n.gif)
0:00 Hardest Piano Concertos
0:12 Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto 2
1:49 Brahms Piano Concerto 1
4:15 Prokofiev Piano Concerto 3
6:22 Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto 1
8:22 Ravel Concerto for the Left Hand
10:07 Brahms Piano Concerto 2
11:40 prokofiev Piano Concerto 2
14:10 Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto 3
15:48 Bartok Piano Concerto 2
No Medtner #2? No Busoni? No Dvorak?
Good list, but it doesn’t account for some of the lesser known “difficult” works that are certainly at least as hard as the Brahms #2 or Rach #3.
The Dvorak famously was a challenge for even Richter, who learnt the Bartók #2 in a couple weeks but the Dvorak took him two years.
That's also because Dvořák was not a good pianist, it is always a pain in the neck to play his pieces on piano. They're not "difficult", they are incredibly uncomfortable, unnatural to play, better pianist would write the same idea in a way that is far more natural to do. Most pianists omit a lot of notes when playing the Dvořák's concerto because you would probably not notice anyways, there are even editions with these omissions in place.
And well, Richter said "ffff it, I'm gonna play the original, untouched, unnatural, uncomfortable version" and that's probably why it took him so long. Look at the list, even Ravel was a good enough pianist to have a good understanding how to write for piano and he was no virtuoso, but he was a pianist. Bartók, Brahms, Rachmaninov, Prokofiev etc. all amazing pianists, and then Dvořák haha. I love Dvořák, he's just a pain to play.
This is not a difficulty list but a list of concertos from the standard repertoire sorted by what a novice perceives as dazzling virtuosity.
Busoni, Reger, Henselt, and Alkan's concerto for solo piano should be in there.
Bussoni is to boring theres no music in hes concerto
@@pabloharolegaspi7378 Clearly the Busoni's concerto has some merit since it is actively performed and listened to. Just say you don't personally like it instead of trying to make objective statements about the piece
Prokofiev No 2 and Bartok No 2 are the only ones which are really difficult. The rest are great and easy to enjoy.
You don't think Rach 3 or Brahms 2 are difficult? I've played Prok 2 and Rach 3 and the difficulty is pretty comparable to me.
rach 3 is easy huh??
Brahms 2 is extremely challenging musically and technically and I can only dream of playing it one day
It is not a collection of the hardest piano concertos up to 1931 but just a collection of my favorite piano concertos😊
Rachmaninoff 2 isn't too difficult other than a few sections (which I consider not difficult but awkward), the same could be said for Tchaikovsky's 1st, where virtuosic but simple figurations and parallel octaves pervade the majority of the piece. The Ravel left hand isn't too bad, the section you shown was the only real challenge, but it's short and the rest of the piece isn't too hard technically. A more comprehensive list would include Busoni, Reger, Strauss (Burleske), Berg (Chamber Concerto), perhaps Scriabin's Prometheus if you consider that a PC, and pieces such as Rachmaninoff 3, Brahms 2, Bartok 2 that you have already put in. Nonetheless, all of the pieces you presented are masterpieces and difficulty should not prevent them from being enjoyed and appreciated.
What do you think about alkan concerto scriabinist? i am your fan man i watch all your videos
@@davikersulks9525 In general words, I don't like Alkan too much, as I find him overly virtuosic and a bit tedious. I like his Symphony more, but the Concerto is decent, I suppose.
I've been told that Dvorak in G Minor is very very hard because unpianistic - what are your thoughts?
The Ravel left hand concerto quickly falls out of this list altogether once you realise that able-bodied pianists can just perform it with both hands. Never understood why they keep larping as if they were Paul Wittgenstein. 100% ensured the performance would be better if they just use both hands God gave them.
Rach-2 may not be in this list (perhaps, Saint Saen 2??)
And Bartok 3 is definitely difficult (more difficult than Bartok 2)
Excellent sync of music/notation! Thank you. Also must add that Prokofiev #2 is a favorite.
What's going on with the pitches in these recordings? Brahms 1 is a whole step flat, Tchaikovsky, Ravel, Rach 3, Bartok, and both Prokofievs are a half step flat, and Brahms 2 is a half step sharp. Were the speeds adjusted?
I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed!
was just gonna say, its really strange
What is the one played during 0:00 to 0:11? I've never haerd of this one. I really wanna know the name.
I love Bartok's n°2.
Chopin 1, Schumann, Beethoven 4/5…Mozart, they are all very difficult to play well. And music isn’t just about to play but to interpret, and as soon as you have to take out some music, and not just a big amount of fast and loud notes, it gets horribly difficult. Braley won Reine Elisabeth with Beethoven 4th…
Impossible to compare anyway.
No Prokofiev 2nd concerto for example..
They are difficult but don’t even compare with the hardest concertos
This video needs a better description. It needs a list of the works it includes and details of the performances.
How much was the Brahms concerto slowed down in this video for it to be so much lower than it should? :/
urgh why is the video tuned down a semitone
maybe because of copyright reasons? idk
Maybe an homage to a=415 HZ?
Perfect pitch moment?
The first piano concerto he played was tuned a bit sharper than standard actually
I wouldn’t consider rach 2 as a top 10 most difficult concerto
Wtf
Rach 3 contents much mire difficulties than n2
@@janusz.piverskiCorigliano, Ginastera, Messiaen, Reger, etc. all want a word
@@kgroveringer03 up to 1931
@@ShutUpZewenThisIsNotBased from the most well known composers
why are all of these transposed down a half or whole step from the sheet music?
Bravo dude! Great video. Appreciate your selections. Agree: both Prokofiev, Bartok, Rach 3. Would add Busoni.
The Chopin 1st piano concerto in E minor is more difficult than quite a number of these.
Brahms 1st and 2nd concerto--maybe the Barber concerto?
Who are the performers, please? Would gladly listen to their whole performances.
I only want to know who is playing Prokofiev to avoid the rendition. It's really unimpressive.
@@talastra Yeah, it sounds like it's being performed at practice tempo.
This list only partially makes sense, and that's because it's not a difficulty ranking at all, but a ranking of how difficult some of the more famous concerti sound to someone who mistakes obvious virtuoso showmanship with difficulty. A good example omitted from the list while defo having to be in there, is the Henselt concerto. It is extraordinarily difficult but the extreme skill level required to play it does not translate into showmanship - it translates into things like complex musical textures and rich harmonies which make the work stand out, but are not at all obvious to listeners who aren't themselves pianists with a decent technique + also familiar with the score.
It's recorded only sparingly despite never falling out of favour with audiences. It fell out of favour with pianists during the recording era, due to the extreme difficulty of pulling off a note-perfect rendition of it, which is why Artur Rubinstein, who extensively performed it live, never made a recording. He literally feared his reputation would be damaged if a studio recording would turn out with a good few wrong notes in there (a questionnable attitude, pianists like Alfred Cortot and Erwin Fischer prove that note-perfection is way overrated and spontaneity and musicality at the expense of more than just a few wrong notes is perfectly fine with listeners).
Another work missing here which should absolutely have been included, and which is in fact a well-known display of virtuoso showmanship, is Alkan's concerto for piano solo. Its musical complexity, the extreme stamina and concentration needed to play this behemoth 1-hr long work, and having to have a vast array of different sounds one should be able to draw from the piano in order to emulate various orchestra sections at work, make it one of the most challenging works out there.
and Michael Ponti made the Helselt quite manageable.
Nice list ! I personally think Prokofiev 2 and Brahms 2 are harder than Rach 3. There is also Busoni’s concerto which is considered by far as the hardest piano concerto.
For someone with perfect pitch, like me, this video is a nightmare to follow. The pitches are all over! Brahms 1 sounds a whole step flat, several others are a half step flat, and Brahms 2 is a half step sharp! What's up with that?
Probably to evade copyright, but yeah that is very uncomfortable
Same! I had a hard time with the keys being different than what was written.
14:16 sounds more like E flat major than E major to me
I caught that too, it sounds like its out of tune!
Most of the pieces are written in a different key, than shown in this vid. Mostly one note below what's in the score in the vid
The whole audio is a half step below than original. Brahms 1st Concerto is even a whole step below, sounding in C minor instead of D minor, and brahms 2nd concerto sounds in B major 😅
I would consider Prokoffief no 2 in G minor to be number 1. To this day many of the greats fear it.
E.g., Argerich has never touched Prok 2.
who is the pianist playing rach 3? thats a whimsical interp
Indeed
Where is Busoni's Piano Concerto?
All eight of Sorabji’s numbered concertos were written before 1931 so why aren’t any of them here? Not even the one whose score is on IMSLP and which has a recording? (No. 5)
Are they any good or are they just 'difficult'?
Who is playing Brahms 2? It's so good with this tune
I prefer zimerman’s a bit cleaner with less pedal gives more tension
Ravel's Concerto for the Left Hand: if you are a bad pianist, you can at least cheat and use both hands! 😜
Prokofiev 2... And you don't show the 2nd movement? 😅
the second mov of prok 2 is hell, but only technically, musically is more difficult the 1st mov than the 2nd
@@Gabrimedde As someone who is preparing this concerto now, completely agree. 1st movement is probably the hardest musically, second technically is hell, third isn't bad and the fourth has some freakish parts, both technically and musically.
@@Gabrimedde As someone who is preparing this concerto now, completely agree. 1st movement is probably the hardest musically, second technically is hell, third isn't bad and the fourth has some freakish parts, both technically and musically.
What happened to Brahms 1? It's about 1 tone down - instead on arriving in A minor it is on G minor!
I think most, if not all of these Concerti do that here. The Ravel Concerto was not in the correct key, either.
Please add a table of contents to this excellent video.
Cette question de la « difficulté » est tellement vaine! Un concerto de Mozart peut poser autant de défis qu’un concerto de Saint-Saens: il s’agit du degré d’exigence face à l’œuvre, et certainement pas du nombre de notes et d’acrobaties demandées par la partition. Il y a des œuvres injouables et sans intérêt. Ne pas confondre musique et accumulation!
Cet homme a tout dit
Tout à fait. Mozart est infiniment difficile à bien jouer. Beethoven, Chopin Schumann…
Everything sounds semitone lower - it breaks my brain. Tell me, please, what concert sounds at the very beginning on the intro?
Think many are a whole step lower
What about Busoni?
Busoni's Concerto single handedly carried the technical side of difficulty in that decade, no one else wrote anything nearly that difficult.
@@SCRIABINIST I know, so why isn’t it in the video?
why all the keys are lower than normal???
This list is extremely subjective, and I figured that lots of people would disagree with it.
Missing:
Ravel concerto in g
Busoni
And all trascptions Wagner opera’s by Listz
Piece in the beginning??
I couldn't really hear the pianist in your audio of Ravel's left hand concerto. Was this just me?
me too...
The list only includes really popular concerti, but there are a lot of lesser known concerti that belong here
What is the point of showcasing music no one will listen too? The whole point of any art form is to connect with others. If there is no connection, it is already a failure & then reduced to just a difficult exercise in playing notes, in the like of scales or Hanon exercises.
@@miriammolinero1446 wut
Emperor concerto is the most difficult if you don't like being compared with all of the historical greats and their magnificent interpretations.
My hearing isn't the best so I wonder if there are DOUBLE TRILLS in some of these works?
Pretty sure in the last few measures of the Brahms there is some kind of double trill before the Piano and Orchestra do echoes of each other??
No busoni lol, rach 2 hahaha
Also no reger and the others Indeed these are just most popular concertos lol
welp with all these questionable top ... piano pieces/concerti videos i can only be increasingly grateful for the high quality videos that Caleb has been putting out for us in the past two years
Lol
Was waiting for Busoni on this list.... alas
Were all pieces tuned lower?
Yep, the score is a note higher than the audio! (I think they're versions for 2 pianos I dunno)
@@augusti7621 Some are tuned up a semitone and some are a whole note tuned down this is ridiculous
Yep... Really throws me of listening to it, whilst reading the score☠️😭
Tchaikovsky n1, Brahms n2, Dvořak, Rach n3
What's the name of the piece at the beginning of the video (before the first piece)?
Prokofiev 2?
But he didn't show the 2nd movement...
Who Was The Amazing Pianist In The Prokofiev 3rd ??????????
Can you do one which is 'since 1931' as well? I don't really listen to much music older than that personally but I enjoyed the video nevertheless.
Why is the sheet music in different keys? Makes no sense.
Everything is half tone lower! Why?? Sounds awful
Cause this guy is a real jerk. What a slithery snake. A revolting rat, if you will.
I think that in certain areas of Europe they don’t tune A to 550
@@davidharris7563 That’s why the USA will always be #1
People change the pitch of recordings to attempt to avoid being flagged for copyright infringement. It's extremely common.
@@StoneChords wrong.
I think Berg’s kammerkonzert should be on the list, but good video.
May I ask you where you found the sheet music of Bartok PC 2?
Universal edition. Quite readily available.
@@user-jj8kg5ef2t May I ask you to give me its link? Or if you have got any pdf file?
What Brahms recording did you use
Ravel's LH is a monster!!
It's actually not a very hard concerto, it's not very long nor technically challenging
@@neilr5208
Sure, it’s not that long, but how is it not technically challenging? You need one hand to *sound* like there’s two playing.
@@Hailey_Paige_1937 I've played it before, it's not that bad other than the section show in the video. Most of its patterns and arpeggios are comfortable and the only strength needed is the pinky, which plays all the Melodies. :)
@@Hailey_Paige_1937 I'm sorry if this is an unsatisfactory answer, I don't know if you're a pianist, but any pianist who has sight read through the concerto would tell you that it is pretty technically straight forward with a few exceptional passages.
@@neilr5208 No, I appreciate your response, actually, thank you! And I’m a vocalist and amateur pianist, haha. It sounds much more difficult to me than it probably really is.
What was the first concerto that was in the intro?
Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto 2 :)
Thanks
Where’s Alkan Concerto for solo piano?
Not a real concerto, was transcribed for solo piano so it doesn’t count. Solo concerto probably beats all pieces mentioned here except Bartok 2 in terms of difficulty
Grazie per l' interessante antologia.
Se per " hardest" intende tecnicamente difficili credo almeno in parte si possa condividere. Il 1o di Brahms, lo escluderei completamente però: la sua genesi è chiara ed infatti molti virtuosi lo hanno evitato proprio per il ruolo che il pianoforte ha rispetto l' orchestra.
Quello che emerge chiaramente però da questo lavoro di selezione è che tecnicamente più difficile molto spesso non si sposa con artisticamente di maggior valore.
What about the Samuel Barber?
Why I ear all’ in another tone😮 ?
All of these are from the standard repertoire. These aren't the hardest.
You should deffo take a look at Scharwenka PC4
And where is Piano Concerto by Adolf Henselt, which is famous as one of the harderst piano concertos in the history, but difficulties for pianist are invisible to the public?
Kapustin 's 4th concerto?... Why...
Busoni concerto is way more difficult than any of these concerti
I'd add Beethoven 4 and 5
I am not familiar with this Bartok’s Concerto and have never played it. So could someone explain it please, is this concerto really much more harder than Rachmaninov 3? I know there are countless piano concertos out there, that I don’t know. I am too narrow-sighted. But in my opinion only, is that the difficulty of Rachmaninov 3 is really out of this world.
I'm no pianist at all, but the Rach 3 and the Bartok 2 (and possibly Bartok 1) vie in my experience for greatest PC of 20th century (hard to choose because Rach--representing the end of the Romantic era--is so different from Bartok). I've heard many versions of each, and read many comments about each, including by performers and critics. Many have said the Rach 3 is the hardest (among the greatest such works) to play, many have said the Bartok 2. Your guess probably as good as mine.
Bartok 2 is much harder than Rach 3, and I would say that Prokofiev 2 is also harder, if only slightly.
Bartok 1 should also be included. It may not be technically harder, but it's harder to integrate piano and orchestra. And it too is one of the greatest!
Bartok 3 is even more difficult.
I am playing Rachmaninoff Concerto No.3, and I have listened to it for probably 50 hours, in person and online. It is harder than Bartok 2, which I have listened to also in person and on line, and looked at the score, the clip he played here may sound difficult but it is not at all, it is chromatic passages, chords and scales played really fast, something a well rounded pianist should probably be able to accomplish with time.
Prokofiev 5 3 rd movement is the hardest of the Prokofiev piano concertos. It’s really hard to play at the lightning tempo.
Very important. Nothing better to do?
Would add Ligeti
Korngold's left hand concerto is ten time harder than Ravel's one..
I am almost certain that’s not true
Agreed, but I still love Ravel’s. Korngold’s is definitely up there, along with Britten’s “Diversions for Left Hand.”
😳🤯
Bravo
What about Rautavaara 1 or Ligeti?
before 1931*
rautavaara 1 is not so bad, is really fun to learn
Not a huge fan of that rach 2 recording at all
Liszt 2nd must have
id say Chopin concerto 1 is harder than Rach 2
Not really
@@cynicxloud true. i just finished both concertos of chopin, wouldnt agree with myself as of today
Rachmaninoff piano concerto 2 is too easy I think
Sounds sharp ? Weird tuning
or flat?
The most inaccurate list I’ve ever seen
How would you list the them?
For the First of Brahms, put the Fleisher or the Horowitz version, instead of this very weak pianist, in order that all can see how epic it is.
Same problem with the Prokoviev.
Indeed, the Gilels record is by far the best Prokofiev concerto.
I'm aware that it's your own personal list, but before doing it you should have done much more researches. For me - I'm pianist - your list looks like like joke, sorry.
This list is kinda wack
Rach 2???? Come on. Where would you put the Khachaturian piano concerto?
The recording of Brahms No. 1 sounded strangely flat, I mean, the pitch-wise. It did sound like it was in c minor! Ditto for the Tchaikovsky. Okay, only half tone flat for that one.
Ravel piece wasn’t in the correct key either
FFS why not include some that are NOT some of the most overplayed concerti as well? So much for demonstrating a range of them...
Lists like this need to be banned from YT.
Where's the fucking Brahms 2?
Just list them in the description clickbait