Top 10 Hardest Beethoven Pieces for Piano

Ludwig van Beethoven invented difficulty. Well, not really, but he is one of the first composers to write music with the intention of stretching the limits of what a human can do on the piano. Like with my other videos, the recordings I use display my own personal favorite recordings of a work in the hopes that more exposure can be brought to the great pianists both new and old. Note that I tend to avoid using recordings that have already been pointed out in high-profile channels unless they are truly unbeatable in their category. **BEETHOVEN DIFFICULTIES** Beethoven straddles the line between virtuosity and artistry—his intention is often to impress and awe the audience by exploring new possibilities of both physical and emotional boundaries. When his music first debuted, performers often had to deal with unprecedented techniques and emotional difficulties, giving Beethoven a rather terrifying reputation among his contemporaries. Luckily, Beethoven is neither new nor unknown today, and there are dozens of essays and even treatises on how to tackle his music. Furthermore, Beethoven’s protégés and friends (Czerny, Ries, Hummel, etc.) wrote a host of etudes that specifically dealt with the techniques seen in his sonatas. However, that does not mean playing Beethoven is ever easy. Even today, professionals squabble over how to interpret certain passages in the late sonatas, and even virtuosi tremble when confronted with the sheer physicality seen in the Hammerklavier. The extended trills, awkward jumps, unending counterpoint, emotional weight, and sheer length are enough to turn away all but the most steely of performers. And that’s just one sonata. The other late sonatas all pose their own unique difficulties (save for one—spontaneous fugal writing) and that’s not to say that the Concerti (mainly 3, 4, and 5) don’t have their own problems to deal with. As a whole, a strong base is required in scales, arpeggios, twisty extended runs, left hand runs, articulation, counterpoint, clarity, and jumps. **TIMESTAMPS** 10. Piano Sonata “Appassionata” (7) 0:00 Sviatoslav Richter 0:54 Emil Gilels 9. Piano Sonata (7) 1:34 Artur Schnabel 2:44 Alfred Brendel 3:28 Solomon 4:11 Richard Goode 8. Piano Sonata (7) 5:06 Friedrich Gulda 5:56 Wilhelm Backhaus 6:45 Alfred Brendel 7. Piano Concerto No.5 “Emperor” (7 ) 7:24 Wilhelm Kempff 8:05 Walther Gieseking 8:52 Artur Schnabel 9:52 Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli 10:26 Wilhelm Kempff 6. Piano Sonata (7 ) 11:08 Myra Hess 12:02 Annie Fischer 12:38 Emil Gilels 13:18 Bruce Hungerford 5. Piano Concerto No.4 (7 ) 14:09 Gina Bachauer 14:59 Myra Hess 16:06 Leon Fleisher 4. Diabelli Variations (8) 17:06 Rudolf Serkin 17:39 Piotr Anderszewski 18:24 Martin Helmchen 19:17 Tatiana Nikolayeva 20:26 Nikolai Demidenko 3. Piano Sonata (8) 21:12 Annie Fischer 22:14 Claudio Arrau 22:59 Emil Gilels 2. Piano Sonata (8) 24:12 Stewart Goodyear 24:52 Sviatoslav Richter 25:35 Jenő Jandó 1. Piano Sonata (9) 26:37 Friedrich Gulda 27:41 Maria Yudina 28:19 Emil Gilels 28:54 Rudolf Serkin 30:11 Maurizio Pollini 31:12 Paavali Jumppanen 31:59 Claude Frank **HONORABLE MENTIONS** Piano Concerto No.3, Piano Sonata “Waldstein”, Variations in C Minor, Eroica Variations, Piano Sonata No.4 **PATREON LINK** If you want to support my crippling addiction to making these videos