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.
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.
This four-voice fugue creates a taut contrapuntal tension: the entries overlap tightly and require precise articulation so each line remains audible without drowning the others. The main technical challenges are Harmonic analysis (4.4/5), which here means quickly spotting modulatory progressions and harmonic pivots to anticipate resolutions, and Polyphony in three voices or more (4.4/5), which requires hand division, fingering that secures independence of lines, and control of legato and dynamic contrast between voices. Placed within the indicated Romantic, polyphonic context, the piece reflects the composer's engagement with contrapuntal density and rich harmonic language in the piano repertoire. I do not provide a recommended recording here because I am not certain of a single, widely acknowledged reference for this specific fugue.