Top 10 Hardest Schumann Pieces for Piano

Schumann is one of those composers that must be played to truly understand his difficulty. There is so little overt virtuosity in his works that one can make the mistake of assuming that his music is not as difficult as that of Chopin or Liszt—but in reality, underneath the rather innocent exterior is a maze of unpianistic writing, contrapuntal awkwardness, and interpretative predicaments. Drawing from his idols Bach and Beethoven, Schumann adoration of blocky writing and dotted rhythms likely stemmed from Beethoven’s Op.101 No.2 or perhaps even the Arietta of Op.111, respectively. And he loved counterpoint; while his music does not contain many overt fugues like that of Beethoven or even Brahms later, Schumann wrote in countermelodies and hidden lines that created a new sort of “Romantic-style” counterpoint. And that is another one of his great difficulties—with so many lines, which voice should be brought out? But the truly daunting task is the length and complexity of his great works. While one can rely on a sonata to have three or four movements, most of his major works span from 25-35 minutes, and contain 8 or more movements of varying moods, ideas, textures, atmospheres, and technical difficulties. Pianists balk at having to keep an audience invested when there is so much going on and so little time to convey every individual idea. And that is perhaps what makes Schumann a bit more esoteric; his music is vulnerable and intimate yet hard for the pianist to convey these ideas, his music is difficult and complex without virtuosic payoff. 10. Piano Concerto, Op.54 (7+) 0:00 Sviatoslav Richter 0:51 Maria João Pires 1:56 Géza Anda 9. Carnaval, Op.9 (7++) 2:34 Guiomar Novaes 3:15 Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli 4:22 Sergei Rachmaninov 5:01 Nelson Freire 8. Humoreske, Op.20 (7++) 5:55 Jacob Greenberg 6:45 Freddy Kempf 7:41 Seong-Jin Cho 8:17 Radu Lupu 7. Sonata No.1, Op.11 (7++) 8:47 Klára Würtz 9:31 Dino Ciani 10:24 Susanne Grützmann 10:57 Anna Shelest 11:48 Murray Perahia 6. Sonata No.3, Op.14 (7++) 12:44 Bernd Glemser 13:11 Vincenzo Maltempo 13:58 Bernd Glemser 14:47 Vladimir Horowitz 5. Fantasie, Op.17 (8) 15:47 Abbey Simon 16:29 Nelson Freire 17:15 Sviatoslav Richter 4. Symphonic Etudes, Op.13 (8) 18:10 Claudio Arrau 19:04 Nikolai Lugansky 19:43 Alfred Cortot 20:18 Sviatoslav Richter 3. Toccata, Op.7 (8 or 8+ with repeat) 20:52 Martha Argerich 21:37 Nikolai Lugansky 21:50 Emil Gilels 2. Kreisleriana, Op.16 (8) 22:28 Susanne Grützmann 22:57 Jenő Jandó 23:59 Vladimir Horowitz 24:30 Éric Le Sage 1. Davidsbündlertänze, op.6 (8) 25:06 Florian Uhlig 25:40 Éric Le Sage 26:08 Maurizio Pollini 26:47 Claudio Arrau Honorable mentions: 8 Novelletten, Sonata No.2, Fantasiestucke Op.12, Bunte Blätter Op.99, Faschingsschwank aus Wien, Paganini Etudes Op.3 and Op.10