Intermezzo in A major from Mikrokosmos Vol.4 No.118
Intermezzo Piano solo ~2 min
In brief

This short Intermezzo in A major feels playful yet restrained, like an intimate conversation where the sprightly motifs are kept within an elegant simplicity. Technically, you will need to focus on Nuances (2.5/5) by shaping small dynamic steps between the hands, and on Legato (2.5/5) which requires a smooth finger‑to‑wrist connection to link short phrases without blurring their light articulation. The piece belongs to Bartók's pedagogical Mikrokosmos collection, intended as graded study material rather than a standalone concert work. I do not give a performance reference here out of caution.

MusicCoach difficulty
46/100
Intermediate
Likely range : 40–52/100
Confidence : 53% · to confirm
BeginnerIntermediateAdvancedVirtuoso
Exam grade
On the syllabus: Grade 5 Trinity_London

Official level, taken from the exam syllabus.

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
Combined exam syllabi
Grade 5
44/100 normalised
Relative difficulty
71%
Among Béla Bartók
45%
Era
28%
Genre
Estimated skills
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.

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