Hardest piece you know?

Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 is a bit of a pain - I mean, too many flats!! The Waldstein Sonata I think is really good - though I can only kinda play the first few pages. Get bored with Beethoven after a while when he begins to repeat everything in a different key. Haven't fully converted yet to classicalism

The hardest piece I ever perform was a piece under 2 minutes. It is an old russian folk song called, "two guitars". It was rather fast. Of course, my hand may have already been tired after the 24th caprice but I truly believe that "Two guitars" is quite difficult

Havergal Brian wrote a violin concerto that is supposedly the single most difficult piece in the violin repertoire.

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

For sure.

I played the Liszt Piano Sonata over the summer. My hands shook when I was done playing it....I will never look at that again...what a stress-builder!!

Sorabji's Opus Clavicembalisticum is of course the hardest piece of all. It is for piano.

I can guarantee that no one will even like the piece. Look it up, and listen to clips, and you will see what I mean.

Opus Clavicembalisticum

Before I quit playing, the hardest thing I ever played in an actual solo performance in front of an audience (besides a freaking judge) was probably Debussy's Premiere Rhapsodie (clarinet). I had performed it two weeks prior and it was a disaster because I was late and had to run there, and was all out of breath. Finally though, in my last performance, it all came together, despite my nerves of death. In terms of fingerings and such it's not THAT hard, but to really play it well it's a real workout, huh?

Technically, I've had a great time (and a great struggle) playing the clarinet transcription of Prokofiev's Sonata Op.94. That piece is a monster! I LOVE it though, too bad my jaw finally broke down before I could do anything with it. Humbug. I can't even listen to it now, it makes me cry within the first 5 measures of any movement. I'm a total mess (lol). Andrey Bielov plays it fantastically on violin, though.

That's it.

Lincolnshire Posy for an entire ensemble. My wind ensemble is performing that piece this spring, and it's taking forever to put together.

The Paganini Violin Concertos: Paganini was to the violin what Liszt was to the piano.

Paganini was to the violin what Liszt was to the piano.

Pointlessly virtuosic