I know this topic has come up a number of times. I'm not so much asking what the hardest song is. I'm more trying to figure out if songs I know about measure up to that level. The ones that come to mind when I think about this question are Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody no. 2, Chopin's Ballade no. 1, and according to my piano teacher, Rhapsody in Blue was one of the hardest songs she ever learned. There is also a song by Beethoven that my piano teacher claims is regarded as one of the more difficult becuse of the demands of the phrasing, but I can't remember the name. Any thoughts?

Try these-
Liszt: La Campanella
Chopin: Etude Opus 10 no 5 & no 12
Polonaise Opus 53

I agree that Hungarian Rhapsody is pretty hard (and long).

Try:

-Moonlight Sonata (1st Movement) by Beethoven
-Fantasie-Impromptu by Chopin
-Valse (Op. 64, No. 1) by Chopin

I find Chopin's pieces to be somewhat challenging...

Did you mean Movement 3 of the Moonlight Sonata?

And I don't think I've actually heard the piece, but Rachmaninoff's third piano concerto is supposedly one of the hardest works for piano ever written.

Tempest 1st movement by Beethoven is hard, I can't even play it.

Beethovens Moonlight Sonata movement 1 is actually quite easy. 3's alot harder, mainly because of the speed. Fantasie Impromptu by Chopin is hard too, I think.

I think Rachmaniov 'Concerto por piano - finale alle breve' would win though, i think its the one with 12ths and 14ths in it. He cut notches in his finger webbing just so he could play it. Ouch.

I don't think Moonlight Sonata movement 1 is hardest at all....I've been playing a year and I can fairly slowly sight-read the first half of it - so it can't be that hard. But in saying that I haven't tried the rest of it, and actually I can see why it may been seen as hard because lots of the chords are bigger than octaves and need to be arpeggiated unless you have bigish hands!!!

So far I would say Debussy's Arabesque No.1 i quite hard. I used to be able to play the first 20 bars or so, until I realised that the timing of the well known part (the broken chord-like part) had strange timing due to triplets!!!

XxX

try Chopin's Scherzo's 1 and 2. 1 is so fast i can barely keep up. 2 is kinda easy for me cuz that's just my type of music. Also try Bach's Fugue from Toccata 2 in e ... fugues just give me headaches

Also chopin's etude 25 no 11 takes a bit of fingerwork, but just that, not hard.

fantasie impromptu isn't hard.... neither is moonlight sonata... or de arabesque

Rachmaninoff's third piano concerto hands down. There are parts I cant even begin to play.

I think Turkish March is pretty challenging...

The Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev concerti are some of the hardest piano works. For solo piano, try looking at some Alkan works where even adagios and largos can be virtuosic.

Moonlight Sonata's my favorite piece so far!!! i'm starting to learn Movement no.2.

I remember a year ago when i was still a beginner. By the third week of lessons, my teacher wanted me to learn the 1st Movement already. Hahaha.

I agree, at some point it can be hard (especially for beginners who were pushed to doing such pieces when they should have been doing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star or something...). For me, it strains to continuously play it during that time because it needs GETTING USED TO.

but overall, it's pretty easy to play and understand.

CLARE DE LUNE'S MUCH HARDERRRRR.

I think etudes would be very challenging
For example...
Have you tried Scriabin's Etude op. 8 no. 4?

Rachmaninoff Etude Op 39 #6

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVuP1BjbhAg