The hardest piece ever? Well I have played piano only properly for a year and a half and I am better at playing music by ear and from memory than trying to read it off a sheet, which is probably impossible anyway with the hardest pieces.

The chopin etudes, both sets are regarded as the himalayas of piano literature, each one a different skill to learn. You first need to learn and try to get through the notes (if you ever manage it with some of them), and then face the task of playing the piece well. It has taken me ages of practice and determination to learn the black key study alone, even though there are 23 other studies to learn.

You need incredibly strong hands to play some of them, try the first etude in c major for example and the last in c minor no.24. Liszt etudes also very taxing and fiendish, infact most pieces by these two, especially liszt range from difficult to crazily hard.

So I think along with many other experts that the Chopin Etudes are the hardest pieces ever, only for people with plenty of courage to dare to tackle them.

Try learning by ear or sight reading, that should make songs much harder.
But there are two types of "hard" songs. There`s purely technically challenging yet still `sound good`, then there are songs that are technically hard AND emotional.
Some songs that I`ve heard are hard are Chopin`s Winter Wind Etude, Beethoven`s Hammklavier and Waldstein Sonata, and and Chopin`s Heroic Polonaise. Those are all filled with emotion and difficulty. But the absolute hardest piece on earth is Godowsky`s Badinage Etude. It`s a mix of Chopin`s Black Key and Butterfly Etudes. However it`s not exactly filled to the brim with emotion, it`s just a song that`s really hard to play. You can hear it somewhere in Godowsky.com. The hardest piece never written is Godowsky`s Etude that mixes THREE of Chopin`s Etudes. Unfortunately, this gem was lost and hasn`t been found yet

Just wanted to say, mine isn`t a professinal opinion, (I`ve only played for 1 1/2 years, am only 13 1/2, and can only play Rondo Alla Turca and Aufschuwng) so I might not be right.

Try writing something if your so good

It may be stupid to ask about the "hardest" piece. But I think everyone is permitted to ask such a question.
So why don`t people that know hard pieces tell us about`em instead of explaining their "musical life". That`s not what this forum is about!
And by the way by hard I think he mean technically complicated. How can people say A la turca, revoulutionary etude etc. "Totenzanz" and "Dance Macabre" by Liszt is far harder than them.
If you don`t have so much of over-all knowledge then don`t say anything!

i think it depends on the person what "hardest piece" means. like me, I hate playing bach. i just can`t do him. i hate polyphony and having two (or more) separate melodies. i would rather do any romantic or classical piece than Bach. chopin`s waltzes were so much easier than a 2 pg. piece by bach, but that`s just me. for all ya`ll bach players - i give u props :]

you people are naming peices that are standards for regular pianists. Revolutionary, Campenella etc...these are things teens play at competitions, just easy stuff. heres a peice to try if you`re a real virtuoso. A variation on the theme from carmon by Bizet. Vladimier Horowitz played it for his reapprance debut to caranagie hall after retitiring for 12 years. this peice challenges not only technique, sound etc...your hands much actually look a certain way to play it.

This piece happens to be a horowitz transcription. Good luck finding the music. (Also many transcriptions are looked down upon as recital, especially with the amount of original piano music).

Shouldn`t be too hard to find...I have the transcription on .pdf`s.

Those Carmen Variations are a sight to watch Horowitz play. The Art of the Piano shows him playing the last 5 minutes of it. It`s awesome to watch him play a chromatic scale in octaves, alternating each hand and as fast as he can play it. I would love to have a look at the score to it. Where did you find the PDF`s???

This site had most (if not all) of his transcriptions, but I believe it was shut down because the sheet music`s copyrighted or something...not sure.

First..i just want to say that for those people who say that there is not such thing as a piece being harder then another...i have no idea what runs through your heads...stop trying to sound intellegent
second...many others and i don`t care how old you people are...i`m not going to call you or e-mail praising you on your prodigious piano/lying abilities
and also...stop mocking other people because you think that the pieces they suggest are easy...not everyone in the world is born with every classical songs in the world stuck in their heads.
In my opinion, some very hard pieces that i know of through experience are...
Islamey: an oriental fantasy
Ravel`s Gaspard de la Nuit
Rach`s 3rd as well as his 2nd are very difficult
the last movement of Hammerklavier and Waldstein (Beethoven)
strange modern concertos are very difficult as well
and if you want a real response....
Faerie`s Aire and Death Waltz is quite difficult (found at http://community.webshots.com/photo/66340861/69106820woaCiM)

@*%!

The chopin fantasie impromptu isn`t that hard-I not bragging but I played it for my last orchestra soloist performance when I was 13 and in 8th grade. I`m sure that someone that was 32 would be bored with that. Why don`t you just write your own music to play if you`ve played pretty much all the pieces you`ve played and are bored. But here`s a suggestion if you haven`t played yet-Hugarian Rhapsody no.2 or all the hungarian rhapsodys chopin ballades rach concerto no.3. Or, just take up a new instrument. That`ll give you a challenge.

Here is a rare suggested piece that you, 32-year old experienced piano player, can try to tackle.

Rossini`s William Tell Overture in piano transcription.

You can find this piece in www.sheetmusicarchive.net
just click on the composer Rossini and the sheet music would be there.

I think you would find the 2nd movement and the 4th or last movement to be quite intricated.