No. 3 op. 85 no. 3 · MWV U 111
Piano solo
In brief

This Mendelssohn piano piece has a bright, breezy character with lyrical episodes that call for a steady light pulse rather than overt rubato. Technically you will face mainly Phrasing (2.5/5) — you must shape melodic lines with small accents and precise finger connections — and Legato (2.5/5), requiring smooth note-to-note links through careful fingering and arm weight transfer; Nuances (2.5/5) also demand subtle control of touch to achieve the intended dynamic gradations. The piece belongs to Mendelssohn's piano-works catalogue and reads like a character miniature rather than a large-scale composition; the exact period is not specified here. I do not provide reference recordings, as I am not fully certain which interpretations are universally recognized for this particular work.

MusicCoach difficulty
68/100
Advanced
Likely range : 54–82/100
Confidence : 52% · to confirm
BeginnerIntermediateAdvancedVirtuoso
Exam grade
About grade 7

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
7
74/100 normalised · 2 obs.
Relative difficulty
84%
Among Felix Mendelssohn
83%
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.

See the whole progression