Not surprised to see some Liszt and Paganini entries. Mine (for piano) would be this Chopin composition
There’s oodles of very technically proficient death metal drummers out there, combining amazing creativity with 250+ bpm double kick action. Derek Roddy is one of the first ones to come to mind, but my fave would have to be John Longstreth. I’ve seen him live a couple times (camping out right behind his drums) and trying to follow all the crazy shit he does. He covers his set incredibly, and replicates the recordings precisely. Unfortunately I can’t provide a live link (which you could see for yourself the master that he is) because his unbelievable kicks are never heard in the mix, so:
Traditional marches (a la Sousa) are very hard for young trombonists. Lots of range, lots of notes and tons of movement. And you often have to play very loud and very soft in one song. And they go very fast. It’s quite a workout!
It gets easier as you get older and have longer arms and a stronger diaphragm but marches are still a challenge (they are just less scary as an adult).
Chopin and Liszt were both gifted virtuoso/composers who wrote and performed some of the most difficult to play (and most beautiful) piano compositions. They also had a complicated relationship with each other, best described as “frenemies.” They were opposites: Chopin, shy and retiring; Liszt, gregarious and bombastic. They respected each others work (though Chopin died before Liszt’s best works).
Chopin was a bit full of himself, more so than Liszt, even critiquing some of Beethoven’s work. You’ve got to be pretty damned arrogant to critique Beethoven.
Liszt introduced Chopin to George Sand, who became his love interest. However, the men parted ways when Sand and Liszt’s mistress, Marie d’Agoult came to blows. With an allusion to chess, Liszt explained his drifting from Chopin, “when the Queens went to war their Knights were forced to go to war as well.”
Here’s Valentina performing La Campanella (on a Steinway, not her signature Bösendorfer, with the extra bass octave that she puts to good use)
I see my Mazeppa link from '13 is broken, so here’s Cziffra’s stellar version.You can practically smell the horses as they gallop past.
If you want to tackle all 12 Transcendental Etudes at one sitting, Daniil Trifonov’s go at it isn’t too shabby.
I’m not sure how I’d rate “most difficult” for metal but I think I’d have to pick a death metal/mathcore/deathcore type song; the pace, rhythmic changes and sheer spastic jerkiness of some songs is unbelievable and incredibly difficult to master to the point that playing them is just a rote task.
For drums, I’d guess that Zappa’s The Black Page is widely acknowledged as an incredibly difficult piece of music. I’m not a drummer, so I don’t know if it is the most difficult piece of drum music ever, but it’s gotta be in the running for that title.
yeah it’s up there - saw Terry Bozzio play it at a clinic on his absurdly huge kit, but it doesn’t even remotely blow me away compared to the way-too-many-to-mention metal drummers I’ve seen and heard.
It’s important to keep in mind here that a very, very, very, very fine and tricky line can be drawn between virtuoisty and being a self-indulgent (in the words of Mr. Tufnel) “wanka”. I know I’ll get flamed for this, but I’d put forth that Yngwie Malmsteen - with all his nifty classical training and whatnot - falls in the latter category. (As well as a number of fusion musicians, who will remain nameless.)
I’d reckon that the most technically difficult pieces in a given instrument would be super-fast note-filled monstrosities that no one has heard of, and that no one wants to hear of.
So it’s probably a better question to ask what’s the most difficult beautiful (however you define it) piece/song for each instrument? Works that combine really tough technical aspects with difficulty in bringing out the musicality of it.
Vocally I’m going to go with Gyorgy Ligeti’s Mysteries of the Macabre - seen here in a truly insane (and somewhat arousing) performance by Barbara Hannigan, with Simon Rattle conducting.
Theatrical shenanigans aside, what Hannigan is singing is difficult beyond belief. Ligeti pulls no punches.
Barbara Hannigan is an amazing singer, one of the most talented and dedicated performers of contemporary classical music (Ligeti, Dutilleux, Abrahamsen, Boulez, Benjamin and Dusapin to name just a few of the biggest names).
Good lord, who is that woman? Never heard of her. Obviously amazing at vocal craft, deeply invested in hard, complex music pieces, and yeah, hot, especially with the cute Britney Spears schoolgirl outfit to have fun with the approach to the piece.
But man, does she seen like a hot mess. One of those artists I might enjoy, but in very small doses and at a pretty far distance.