Suite no. 2 for 2 Pianos, op. 17
Romantic Suite Two pianos
In brief

This Suite for two pianos, Op. 17, has a contrasting character: shifting between dance-like movements with clear rhythmic profiles and lyrical pages where motifs echo across the two keyboards, producing a dense, mobile polyphonic texture. You will face specific technical challenges in Style baroque (4.1/5) and Ornaments baroque (4.1/5): you must articulate contrapuntal lines with clarity and hand independence between the two pianos, and execute short, precise ornaments that serve the dance without weighing down the flow, requiring clean fingering and subtle dynamic control. The work belongs to the composer's Romantic period while drawing on suite forms and contrapuntal practice, reflecting a blend of styles.

Listen to this work

No verified recording for this work yet. We add more every week.

Sheet music

Public-domain sheet music on IMSLP ↗

Is this the right work?
Formation

Two pianos · 2 performers

Required forces
Piano 2 performers
Playable parts
Piano I Piano II
MusicCoach difficulty
75/100
Advanced
Likely range : 63–87/100
Confidence : 32% · to confirm
BeginnerIntermediateAdvancedVirtuoso
Exam grade
About grade 8

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.

Does this rating look right to you?

This rating is computed automatically from heterogeneous sources. It gets things wrong, sometimes badly. If you know this work, your answer is worth more than our computation: it tells us which ratings to review.

Add a note (optional)

Your note is not published on the site: it is read in review.

Relative difficulty
17%
Among Sergei Rachmaninoff
71%
Era Romantic
87%
Genre
Estimated skills
Theory
Knowledge of forms
1
Ornaments
Baroque ornaments
1
Style
Baroque style
1
Pedaling
Sustain pedal
1
Style
Romantic style
1
Rhythm
Tempo rubato
1
Technique
Hand independence
1
Technique
Three-or-more-voice polyphony
1
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.

See the whole progression