Elegie no. 2, for violin and piano, S.131
Romantic Violin and Piano
In brief

This Elegy unfolds in a slow, contemplative manner with suspended phrases and pauses that let the melodic line breathe. You will need to focus on Legato bowing (4.3/5) to create uninterrupted lines, which means very gradual bow changes and steady control of speed and pressure, and on Vibrato (4.3/5) to color and sustain held notes, requiring fine modulation of wrist motion and amplitude. Composed in the Romantic period, it fits Liszt's expressive approach to violin-and-piano miniatures, favoring timbre and cantabile writing over sheer virtuosity. I do not provide a reference recording here because I am not certain of a single widely recognized interpretation for this specific piece.

Formation

Violin and piano · 2 performers

Required forces
Violin 1 performers
Piano 1 performers
Playable parts
Violin Piano
MusicCoach difficulty
59/100
Intermediate
Likely range : 52–66/100
Confidence : 42% · to confirm
BeginnerIntermediateAdvancedVirtuoso
Exam grade
About grade 6 to 7

Estimated from our difficulty score, not taken from an exam syllabus. Checked against 333 works on the ABRSM syllabus: the exact grade is right 7 times out of 10, and within one grade 99 times out of 100.

Difficulty estimate by MusicCoach on a scale of 1 to 100.

Where this work sits
050100

Most works cluster between 45 and 65: a small score gap often marks a real step. The highlighted bar shows this work among those for the same instrument.

The MusicCoach difficulty measures a work's overall demands (technique, reading, stamina) on a shared 0-100 scale, consolidated from editorial and pedagogical reference points (Henle, exam syllabuses, curation) and our own analyses. It measures neither musical value nor the practice time YOU will need: two musicians of the same level can experience the same work very differently depending on their strengths (hands used to octaves, quick sight-reading…). The confidence reflects how many reference points sit behind the score and how well they agree — a lightly documented score is flagged “to validate”. For a truly personal bearing, the diagnostic and your space compare each work to YOUR estimated level, which the score alone cannot do.

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Difficulty sources
MusicCoach expertise
60
60/100 normalised
Relative difficulty
44%
Among Franz Liszt
29%
Era Romantic
Genre
Estimated skills
Technique
Bow legato
1
Tone
Vibrato
2
Rhythm
Tempo rubato
1
Style
Romantic style
2
Style
Character and style
1
Technique
Legato
1
Interpretation
Dynamics
2
Interpretation
Phrasing
2
What to play next?

Each suggestion combines difficulty gap, risk, confidence and skill overlap. The first two cards in each column are the most useful pedagogically.

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