Official level, taken from the exam syllabus.
Difficulty estimate by MusicCoach on a scale of 1 to 100.
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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Each suggestion combines difficulty gap, risk, confidence and skill overlap. The first two cards in each column are the most useful pedagogically.
The safest next step.
A genuine step up, without a jolt.
A useful leap with guided practice.
The piece is wrapped in a misty, majestic mood, as if broad sonorities slowly rise from a watery distance, alternating vast resonance and suspended silences. You will need to focus particularly on Balance hands (4.8/5) — here that means projecting the melodic line through the harmonic texture while keeping the other hand subdued yet resonant — and Octaves (4.8/5), which require even attacks and controlled legato across wide spans to preserve the piano’s orchestral clarity. The work holds a key place in Debussy’s piano output as an example of his exploration of atmospheric color and pictorial effect. A frequently cited reference recording is by Walter Gieseking, with notable historical readings by Claudio Arrau.