Yo! What's up! Welcome back to another episode of TwoSet Violin, joined with Sophie Oui Oui! Yeah, Oui Oui!!! Brett, why do you look traumatised? I'm just...had enough of quarantine, - I'm kinda like...
- Oh yeah, that's why we're separate, - because we're in quarantine.
- Oh. Day 12 of quarantine, no sun, I'm getting pale, - I'm becoming a vampire.
- The lighting in these videos... And you're not allowed to... ...leave the room? Or... Yeah, we can't. I can't even open my window. No...! That's terrible. - It's terrible.
- It's really funny though, because random people walk by, and wave at me, I think they know I'm in quarantine, - and they're just like, "Poor guy."
- Oh really? At least you have like social interaction with outside people, I see like... ...a concrete wall. That's right, we have Sophie Oui Oui, joining us. And today, what are we doing today? Today, I will try and show you the most difficult piano pieces. - Ooh...
- I tried to break it down to five, but it's more like five categories. - Ooh.
- I have to say, this was... - ...really difficult, because...
- Haha! ...to say what is difficult, it's so relative, and I feel like on the piano, it's even harder to say than on the violin, because you know on the violin, everyone knows Sibelius 3rd movement is difficult, - or...Pag 5, if you do the original bowing, it's difficult.
- That's right. On the piano, there are things like repetitive octaves that some people... ...just can do very easily, and other people just can't, no matter how much they practice, and that doesn't mean that they like... ...have bad technique or something. But also not only technical difficulties, like playing a slow movement of a Mozart Sonata or concerto extremely well is often harder than playing a flashy Liszt piece. - With like a flashy Liszt piece, if you practice 40 hours a day,
- Mmmmm. - you'll get it at some point.
- Yeah, okay. - But...
- Oooh!!! I feel like a Mozart slow movement, for example, if you don't know what you're looking for, - the 40 hours won't help you. So...
- (Brett and Eddy) Oh...!!! So it requires intellectual musical difficulty as well. Artistic difficulty. Okay, so, my first category is of course, Liszt, who is on the piano probably like Paganini on the violin. It's about the opera "Don Giovanni" by Mozart, and it's... ...one of the most difficult pieces by Liszt, it just gets harder and harder, towards the end it has everything, it has runs, octaves, double thirds. It's the kind of piece that has some places and passages that are basically unplayable, and you have to arrange a little bit, or... ...maybe I shouldn't say this, but leave out a note or two where you don't hear it, - otherwise...
- Ohh, ohh, ohh!
- Ohhhh!!! Secrets! Yes, so what's difficult about this passage is that it's supposed to sound very light, and easy even, but there's so many notes to play at the same time, like the left hand's are all tenths, jumping. He made it sound so easy though. Yeah, and that's... ...kind of the point of it, it shouldn't sound hard, but it is, it's very difficult. - That's crazy.
- And actually I played this piece, there's also a version for two pianos, which I just played with my sister. And it's also insanely difficult, but a lot of these places are... ...separated to two people, whereas in the solo piece, - one person has to play everything.
- (Eddy) Wow. For example, also the end... I love the ending! He's like, - "Bam!"
- (Sophie) Yeah. Dude, that's like... ...finishing a marathon or something, like... ...that level of intensity. It is kind of like a marathon, you have to be... ...smart at the beginning and not give everything, so that you have enough... ...you know, strength, and endurance, to... ...go to the end. Dude, that was insane. Pow pow pow pow pow! - It's not even 15 notes a second, it's like 50,
- (Brett) Yeah. because piano plays like, multiple notes at once. Okay, so this's also in the category of Liszt, because you had it in your "Hardest violin pieces" video. The Erlkönig transcription, there's also one on the piano. - Damn!
- And I'll just show you the beginning of... ...Yuja playing it, it's 4.5 minutes just... ...repetitive. Yeah, so... ...that goes on for 4.5 minutes, and... ...even now in the soft part, this... ...repetitiveness, goes on, so, you really have to be extremely loose, and... ...have the right movement, - otherwise you're dead after...4 minutes.
- I was gonna say, how does she do that movement, like... (Sophie) I think... If you watch it, she doesn't...like in one place, go like this, she goes a little bit.... - ...in front, and back, and...
- Uh-huh, uh-huh. - Damn...yeah.
- Like because if you try to...be like this, you won't...make it. - You'll get injured, right?
- Yeah. Yeah, if you're tense, you're already...lost, so... - Can you play Erlkönig, Sophie, Oui Oui?
- (Sophie) Yeah. I haven't played it yet, but... ...I want to, for sure. - Well, 40 hours and you can.
- (Sophie) I want to, for sure. Well only if you do it, the movement right, 'cause if you don't, then you'll kill yourself, in 40 hours. So the next category is sonatas, which is really hard, 'cause there are a lot of big piano sonatas that are really difficult, like... ...I don't know, Prokofiev 5 or 7, Liszt Sonata, Brahms Sonata, and here I've chosen two, the Beethoven, opus 106, the "Hammerklavier" Sonata, which is equally, technically and musically, very difficult, because it's hard to understand the piece sometimes, when you're listening, musically, and also, it's so long. And technically, on top of it, it was... ...at the time, probably, the hardest piece there was. Yeah, so... Even at the beginning, huge chords... ...that I don't even think I can really reach that well. You have pretty...like, you don't have small hands, right? No, I don't have small hands, but... Damn...and even you find it hard to reach? - Yeah. I mean...
- What if...what about someone with small hands? What do they do? Um... "Just give up. You can't play it." Sometimes you can... ...arrange some things, let you take, like an extra note in the left hand, and...or something. Or the other way around, or you roll a chord, but that's a problem with a lot of Rachmaninoff pieces, because he had so...such huge hands. Like the beginning of the 2nd Concerto, I can't reach all the chords, my sister can, but I can't, so... - ...I'd have to roll them, or...
- Ohh... - Oh, no...
- ...but, what can you do? So this Hammerklavier Sonata is definitely sort of a milestone piece in the piano repertoire. If you tell people I'm playing Hammerklavier Sonata - it's like, "Ooh, wow."
- Ooh!!! It's like a flex. "What are you learning for first year rep?" "Hammerklavier." "Ooh!" Like at the Beethoven Competition in Vienna, there's like certain pieces with "stars" on them, which are considered...you know, difficult, and that's one of them. - Damn!!!
- There's a star ranking! That's a premium piece! Yeah, Premium Beethoven. Dude, this list is Sophie's "Premium Liszt". This next sonata... I chose this because the beginning is... ...extremely simple. - Ooh.
- And therefore, really difficult. This is Arcadi Volodos, I actually heard him like, two weeks ago in Vienna, and he played this piece. - Wow.
- And starting with the first chord, I knew, this was going to be amazing. Yeah, so this... ...you know, simple theme, comes... ...so often in this first movement of the sonata. And it's really difficult, you know, you have to voice it perfectly... ...the sound quality, it has to be like magical, it has to be all in one phrase, because if you just play chords, everyone's gonna be like, "Huh?" - "Huh?"
- I can just imagine— I can imagine Sophie listening to someone that didn't phrase it properly. (Brett and Eddy) "Huh?" Yeah...! That's a thing pianists have to deal with that we don't deal with as much, which is like - every note you play at once, has to be balanced,
- Yeah. - perfectly right?
- Mm-hmm. - it's like a chef getting the flavour proportions right.
- (Sophie) Yeah. - Yeah, that's true, you can't just...
- (Eddy) Yeah. ...play them all the same, there're like, thousands, different ways how you can press a key, and... I mean, because if you listen to this beginning, it's obviously not technically difficult, and... ...anyone who's not a musician would say that's, you know, that's easy, but it's... ...in fact, probably one of the hardest things to do. - It's all about the touch.
- Yeah. Touch is important. So now, people say this is the most difficult piece ever written for piano, - or these two are the most...
- Whoa! ...difficultly, [technical] pieces... - Really?
- ...ever written for piano. - Yes.
- Oh, I'm excited. Okay, this is a piece called Islamey, from the composer Balakirev. I don't exactly know...how it got to have this status, but like everyone knows, THIS is supposed to be the most difficult piece on the piano. Dude, what just happened? The other people thought that the piece was over, because it was so... It's like, only two minutes in. Yeah. - It was so impressive, they're like, "Whoa!"
- Yes. - I mean, I almost don't blame them, though, like...
- Yeah. - You would want to clap after hearing that.
- Yeah! - Oh my god.
- Yeah. A lot of jumps, a lot of notes to play, very [effective], so. And then, as an answer to this piece, Ravel wanted to compose a piece that is - even more difficult than this one.
- Oooh! - Really? Ravel!
- Ravel! Going for it! Yeah, so that was the famous beginning of this Scarbo movement. And I think it's very difficult because, especially where I stopped, this passage, everything is very close together, a lot of repetitive notes, and it's very hard to play very precisely. And because there's just so much you have to, you know, so many notes to play, and... You're kind of like, in your own way, - Oh, yeah! It's like, her hands are like...
- Sophie: sometimes. That's true. Violin is like... Some chords, right? Where you have have to like, - tuck, like, three fifths.
- True, yeah. - That's also like, really awkward.
- Yeah. - Whereas some chords fit really easily, right?
- Yeah. Uh-huh. In the description of the YouTube video, it said that she learned this piece in one week, because nobody told her that it was difficult. Oh wow. What a flex. But I guess you do approach a piece differently if you don't... Like, if everyone tells you, "This is the most difficult piece... - ...ever," than if you just don't know,
- That's true.
- Uh-huh. and just approach it as... But then again, you aren't Martha Argerich, right? Yeah, and she can do anything, so... I've always found it funny that repeated notes are so hard to play on the piano, 'cause it's the easiest thing on the violin. - Yeah...!
- Yeah, because... You never know what kind of piano you will get in the concert. There are some that go easier or go harder, and... - You need to find this one point where the key comes up...
- Oh, that's true! And you hear the note again, because it can happen easily, that you repeat it but you don't hear it, - because the key is still pressed down too much.
- Yeah. And when it's very fast, it's hard to control sometimes. And you have to be really good at adjusting to whatever piano you have. All right! Let's move on. Nice. The famous Goldberg Variations, by Bach. - Oh...
- I chose this because it's probably mentally one of the hardest pieces to perform. It's also sort of like a milestone piece, like... Because I mean, it takes over one hour, and... ...is a lot of the same harmonies, and because they're variations, it's mentally very difficult to play by heart. Is it difficult because it's hard to stay awake while playing it? Ling Ling Insurance! Insurance! Sophie's like, "I'm not impressed by your joke." Didn't he write the Goldberg because some guy had insomnia, and couldn't sleep? Yeah, I think so. Yeah. Yeah. - That was a joke. It was a joke, it was a joke.
- (Sophie) But I... The audience maybe shouldn't... The audience probably shouldn't fall asleep. That's also hard, how do you play them so amazingly well that the audience doesn't fall asleep? Yeah, so, that's obviously the... The theme. - Brett's fallen asleep.
- And... Yeah, I see. There is a very fine line to, you know, when you start this piece... Is it boring, so that everyone falls asleep? Or is it so amazingly well-played that you have to listen to every note? - And that's really hard, I think.
- Mmm. Can you play like, really bad so they stay awake? Yeah, I don't know if that should be your goal, but... You can try. Nah, it is... It does sound very, very beautiful though. Yeah, and it's also hard because a lot of people that sit in the audience, they know this will take over an hour now, so. - If it starts, and...
- Oooh! It's like starting a movie that sucks. - You're just stuck in the cinema for two hours.
- It's true, yeah. Would you say it's a... ...gold star piece as well? The Goldberg Variations? Yeah. For sure. There's one more category: concertos. Ohhh yeah! Wait, I wanna guess. I wanna guess, can we guess - Yeah, yeah yeah! Okay okay, um...
- what Sophie's hardest concertos... Is it one concerto, - that you picked?
- There are two, but again... Very different kinds of difficulties. I'm gonna guess... - Liszt!
- Rachmaninoff. Yeah, Rachmaninoff is one of them. - Ohhh!
- Ohhh!
- You're right. Dude! Yeah. I don't know where to stop. That's so epic! I just want to keep listening to it. Yeah, me too. I thought like, "Should I stop here or should I stop here?" - Wow... Rachmaninoff is the best.
- That's insane!
- Yeah, it's a very difficult, amazing piece. Also, Yefim Bronfman, I love him. He has such an amazing, big sound, and... You never have the feeling he's like, destroying the piano even though... - Eddy: Yeah.
- It's so loud. Well, what do you think is the hardest thing about Rachmaninoff? - Apart from big hands.
- Well... Big hands. A lot of notes. Also, what's difficult with concertos, playing with huge symphony orchestras is that you're actually heard. - You're sometimes here in the audience,
- (Eddy) That's true. and the pianist is like, giving... ...everything, and you don't hear anything. That's also a tricky question, how you make that happen, because just playing as loud as you can isn't always the answer. It has to like, resonate. Then you actually hear it better. - Nice.
- Nice. - The lucky last?
- Okay, so this last one. You might ask why this is in the most difficult pieces list for me. It's, um... Beethoven Concerto No. 4. Which I think is very tricky musically, and also technically, but this beginning... It sounds like the most simple thing ever. But it's... For a lot of pianists, this is the most tricky beginning of a concerto, because... You're all alone. You start with this G major chord, and it has to sound like... I don't know, this is the whole universe, or this magical... ...moment, the voicing has to be great, the phrasing. And like, the whole piece depends on this beginning. If you didn't get it right, what comes after doesn't make sense. - Yeah.
- I played this before! I remember now.
- Yeah, me too! - Yeah!
- Really? This is epic, I love this piece! When she started, I was like, - "Whoa! Ohh! Oh, it's gonna start!"
- Yeah! She took so much time to prepare this first chord. I can see what you mean. It's funny, actually, I remember after I played it, in orchestra, you know, I went home, I tried playing it. 'Cause it... You know, technically, it's just a few notes. - So I tried playing it on the piano.
- Yeah. But it just sounded... ...noob, when I played it. At the beginning when I learned it, you know... Easy. Play that first line, got it. But then as soon as you start thinking about it, "What am I actually doing," it gets so... It's really difficult. It has to be loud enough so that it sustains, for the length that it has to be, and that the next note that comes after it doesn't have an accent, and that it's all under one phrase, and that you hear all the notes in the chord, but the... Yeah. You know, you have all these things going on in your head and then it has to sound like it's just... ...happening, and it's... ...the most simple thing in the world. - Funny how it's always the most simplest parts
- (Eddy) Damn. that causes the most... ...havoc, in the musician's head. Yeah, actually, I find like... Great musicians to me are almost always the most impressive when they play something simple. Yep. - Yep.
- Because they really can flex what they can do with just... It's like Janine's, um... That music video we listened to. - Oh, yeah.
- The colors that she made was like, - "What the hell was that?"
- Yeah, so the notes are not hard, - Yeah. Yeah.
- but man, she made it sound like something else. I think every piece you that you want to play extremely well is difficult. Or some, you can just learn in a week. It's fine. Don't think it's hard, and you're good. Scarbo, yeah. 50,000 likes and Sophie will learn the Scarbo in one week for you guys. - Nah, I'm joking, I'm just joking...
- Ohhhh!! I can try. Can't promise anything. Wow, well there you have it. - Thanks so much.
- Thanks, Sophie. Pianists, what do you guys think? I'm a violinist, it all sounds pretty difficult to me, so... As always, you want to play that well? First step is to go practice. - Oui, oui.
- Yeah. Can I turn the camera Rachmanin-off? Haha.
