3 Pieces, TN ii/19
Romantic Piece Piano solo ~8 min
In brief

This piece creates a plaintive yet tense mood, with lyrical motifs that stretch over dense harmonies and an ending that requires sustained line and control. You will need to work especially on Tempo rubato (3.1/5) — here that means small, controlled tempo fluctuations that require adjusting phrase lengths without losing the internal pulse — and on the Pédale de sustain (3.1/5), which involves precise pedal changes and often half‑pedaling to preserve harmonic clarity amid resonance. The work belongs to Rachmaninoff's Romantic period and is one of his short piano pieces, typical of his taste for expressive melody and rich pianistic writing. I do not give a reference recording because I cannot be fully certain of a specific authoritative performance for this particular piece.

MusicCoach difficulty
50/100
Intermediate
Likely range : 38–62/100
Confidence : 32% · to confirm
BeginnerIntermediateAdvancedVirtuoso
Exam grade
About grade 5 to 6

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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Relative difficulty
20%
Among Sergei Rachmaninoff
35%
Era Romantic
53%
Genre
Estimated skills
Pedaling
Sustain pedal
1
Style
Romantic style
1
Rhythm
Tempo rubato
1
Technique
Legato
1
Interpretation
Dynamics
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