Hardest piece you know?

Hardest piece I have played in its entirety => Liszt Paraphrase on Wedding March and Dance of Elves

Hardest piece I have attempted and gave up => Ravel's Gaspard de la Nuit

I've played Fliszt's 2nd Hungarian Rhapsody... was one of the 1st pieces I ever really learned besides Für Elise and Beety's Minuet in G. I never found the hungarian rhapsody that difficult. I seem to also remember trying the 12th and 17th, but I never finished learning them like I did the 2nd, which I performed in a middle school concert.

On the other hand, here I am 4 years later, and I can't play the third movement of Beety Op.31, no2 to save the life of me. Most of you might have heard it, it goes by the name of Tempest, and I find it incredibly difficult. Anyone else here played it?

Liszt's "La Campanella"

Definitely André Jolivet - Chant de Linos, and Concerto for Flute and Strings.
Amazing music. Nightmarish difficulty.

The hardest solo piece I've come across is probably Dvorak's Cello Concerto in B minor. The 2nd movement is playable, but the 1st and 3rd...they're just cruel! Still, they do make very good, yet musically interesting, technique exercises.

The hardest orchestral piece I've been a part of is The Rite of Spring. I was on Eb clarinet, so the technical difficulty (or lack thereof) of my part wasn't a problem, it was the sheer level of concentration needed. Constantly. I've never counted so hard in my entire life!

I replied much earlier to this, when I was much less experienced. now I say :

The Etude Revolutionary by Chopin.

Fantasie-impromptu by Chopin.

I'm in the middle of learning the Revolutionary. Damn. It's rough.

Originally Posted by kvitske

Liszt's "La Campanella"

Paganini's original is hard as hell. I think more so than Liszt's piano version of it.
I can play some of Liszt's but zilch of Paganini's violin version

The Etude Revolutionary by Chopin.

*hollow laugh*

His first scherzo is WAY harder. As is, as we've established, La Campanella.

Your face is the hardest thing to look at in the history of mankind...

I'd say for traditional cello concerti Schumann is up there as the hardest pieces mainly for expression. Dvorak is very difficult and technically challenging but the sorrow that envelopes the entirety of the Schumann concerto is hard to reiterate effectively.

Hmmm.

I think the Jolivet bassoon concerto tops the list for me.