Hardest piece you know?

if you didn't, then you don't get paid nearly enough. you aren't even supposed to tongue it, are you? I thought it was supposed to be slurred? although, I've never actually seen the original music, so it may have been adapted with time.

Rachmaninov Etude Op 39 No 6 A Minor

Originally Posted by beeri

The Berio sequenzas... if you mean to play exactly what's written... are damn near impossible

Try playing what's written? Pshaw! who would do that?

The sequenzas that I've looked at (viola, piano, oboe) aren't THAT insane once you take them apart.

Faerie's Aire and Death Waltz by John Stump.

It's meant to be impossible and if you look closely it's really funny.

The Cantabile Singers - Faerie’s Aire and Death Waltz

I don't find many pieces difficult but I always try to finish them perfectly. Currently I'm working on Lefevre's second sonata for Clarinet and Piano. Grade V I know but I've only been playing for two years

chopin's first ballade, im started backwards, from the coda!

Carmen Fantasy by Borne for flute is quite hard, but it's mostly just a load of either chromatic runs or general scales. And a little bit of double tonguing here and there. For piano I think that L'alouette (lark) by Glinka is pretty amazing, and I hope to get to that level one day, though it looks ever so slightly impossible for someone with small hands!! Lastly, for violin I would say that one of the most difficult pieces could be Carmen Fantasy (again, I know!) by Sarasate, or maybe any of the virtuoso repertoire actually - after all, many of the great composers were virtuoso violinists themselves. Anyway, sorry about the longest post ever!!!

The hardest piece I've been able to play reasonably well on the horn probably was the third movement of Schoeck's horn concerto. The hardest piece I've attempted to play but failed horribly was Ligeti's Trio for violin, horn and piano. Fast, uncomfortable runs, high notes (lots of D's, at least one Eb) and often staying on such a high note for quite a while (in pianissimo). It's a great piece though.

I've never played something really hard on the piano. Although it's my main instrument, my technique sucks. Luckily there's plenty of piano music that's beautiful and not too hard.

As for general hardness, some of the most frightening ones I've seen were from Ferneyhough (naturally), Stockhausen, and Xenakis (nomos alpha for cello solo).

The hardest piece I've ever seen was an alto saxophone solo by Dezinouv. It's changing between strange key signatures every measure, and has absolutely no feel to it. It's completely random, and I think the second movement requires you to play multiple notes at once. I attempted to sight read it a couple times, and struggled immensely. It would probably be a waste of time to learn it, and it would be another project to play it with an accompionist.

Any other saxophone players hear heard of it or seen it?

Gaspard de la Nuit - Ravel
Islamey - Balakirev
Suite Iberia (particularly Triana) - Albéniz