Allegretto BB 79,9
Piano solo
In brief

The Allegretto presents a crisp, rhythmic character, built from short motifs and a contained drive rather than long lyrical gestures. You will specifically face challenges in Phrasing (2.5/5) and Legato (2.5/5): you must shape small motifs and link them without blurring, using finger connection and subtle wrist control so each attack breathes while maintaining a continuous line where required. The piece is part of Bartók's solo piano output and functions as a compact miniature that helps develop his incisive pianistic language. I do not give a reference recording because I am not fully confident of a single widely recognized interpretation for this exact work.

MusicCoach difficulty
46/100
Intermediate
Likely range : 30–62/100
Confidence : 55% · fair confidence
BeginnerIntermediateAdvancedVirtuoso
Exam grade
About grade 5

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
Henle Verlag
4
38/100 normalised
Relative difficulty
70%
Among Béla Bartók
44%
Era
Genre
Estimated skills
Technique
Legato
1
Interpretation
Dynamics
1
Interpretation
Phrasing
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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