Scherzo in E flat minor, op. 4
Romantic Scherzo Piano solo 9 min
In brief

This Scherzo in E-flat minor is dark and percussive in character, alternating furious bursts with more restrained episodes that require sustained dramatic tension rather than lyrical repose. You will need to focus especially on Octaves (4.1/5) — here they require a crisp attack and a relaxed wrist rebound to maintain power and evenness across frequent leaps — and on Passages rapides (4.1/5), which demand finger precision and economical motion to preserve clarity and articulation at high speed. The piece belongs to the Romantic period and sits among the composer's early ambitious piano works, reflecting his taste for dramatic contrast and pianistic virtuosity. I do not provide a reference recording because I am not certain of a specific widely recognized performance for this exact Scherzo.

Listen to this work

No verified recording for this work yet. We add more every week.

Sheet music

Public-domain sheet music on IMSLP ↗

Is this the right work?
MusicCoach difficulty
77/100
Advanced
Likely range : 71–83/100
Confidence : 60% · fair confidence
BeginnerIntermediateAdvancedVirtuoso
Exam grade
About grade 8

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.

Does this rating look right to you?

This rating is computed automatically from heterogeneous sources. It gets things wrong, sometimes badly. If you know this work, your answer is worth more than our computation: it tells us which ratings to review.

Add a note (optional)

Your note is not published on the site: it is read in review.

Difficulty sources
Henle Verlag
7
74/100 normalised · 2 obs.
Relative difficulty
85%
Among Johannes Brahms
90%
Era Romantic
54%
Genre
Estimated skills
Technique
Octaves
1
Technique
Staccato
1
Technique
Fast passages
2
Pedaling
Sustain pedal
1
Style
Romantic style
1
Rhythm
Tempo rubato
1
Technique
Hand independence
1
Technique
Legato
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