No.123 — Staccato and Legato (2)
Piano solo ~2 min
In brief

This solo piano piece conveys a percussive, restless character, with short accents alternating with smoother lines to produce a bouncing, driven energy rather than a singing melody. You will mainly confront Passages rapides (4.1/5) — here that implies economy of finger and forearm motion, precise finger placement and clear articulation to maintain clarity at speed — and Polyrhythmie 2 contre 3 (4.1/5), which requires hand dissociation through independent wrist pulses and clear placement of beats so each rhythmic layer remains audible. The exact period and place of this number in Bartók's catalogue are poorly documented; it is known chiefly as part of his solo piano repertory without a secure chronological classification. I do not give performance references because I cannot be certain of a widely recognized recording for this specific title.

MusicCoach difficulty
38/100
Elementary
Likely range : 29–48/100
Confidence : 57% · fair confidence
BeginnerIntermediateAdvancedVirtuoso
Exam grade
About grade 4

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
Combined exam syllabi
Grade 5
44/100 normalised
Relative difficulty
52%
Among Béla Bartók
31%
Era
Genre
Estimated skills
Technique
Fast passages
1
Rhythm
Polyrhythm 2 against 3
1
Sight-reading
Sight-reading
1
Technique
Legato
1
Technique
Staccato
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