In my personal ratings I have given it a 20-16-25-19-10-90 making it more overall more difficult than the Alkan Concerto 1st movement at 21-18-16-23-10-87.
This is one of those pieces which, after two decades of nothing-in-particularness, just suddenly opened up to me a few years ago. My favourite from the set is probably still the hairrising 3rd Etude, but this is a much richer listening experience (and yes definitely Doc). I first “heard it” a late summer evening out in the garden, and I’ve never wanted to listen to it anywhere else since. Once or twice a year max.
Op76 cuntainz da KANz earliezt innovationz in piano writing
Year/Date of Composition 1838-1840
When U bear diz in mind tiz juz incredible dat it wuz compozed juz 10 yrz afta Beethovenz death n ova half a century befo Godowzky explored zingle hand writin
I chose the five “elements” that I considered to be the most critical for somebody to be able to learn a piece and then I gave each element a difficulty rating based on the level of skill required to pull that element off. This is done, of course, after having personal experience with playing the piece.
Elements are: fingerwork, octaves, jumps, stamina, and interpretation. In that order.
And here’s a rough guide to each number:
0-1: Beginner
2-3: Novice
3-6: Intermediate
7-10: Early Advanced
11-14: Advanced
15-18: Very Advanced
19-22: Expert
23+: Ridiculous
And this Alkan piece follows: 20-16-25-19-10-90 which is the sum of the 5 elements.
So the idea with this kind of rating is that a student can take one glance at it and be able to have an idea of what techniques are required and if he/she is up to each technique level to play the piece. Of course, it is always better to try pieces yourself but this rating can save time in that it can prevent students from trying pieces that are too hard/too easy.