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Play — BRUCE (XIAOYU) LIU – Waltz in A flat major, Op. 42 (18th Chopin Competition, second stage) · Chopin Institute (the player loads on click)
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Play — Waltz No. 5 in A-Flat Major, Op. 42 · Frédéric Chopin, Alexandre Tharaud (the player loads on click)
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Public-domain sheet music on IMSLP ↗
Official level, taken from the exam syllabus.
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 A-flat major waltz has a restless, feverish character, alternating light dance-like passages with more impassioned episodes that constantly push the momentum forward. Technically, your main challenges will be Tempo rubato (3.9/5), which here requires subtle control of rhythmic placement and micro-adjustments of speed without losing the underlying pulse, and Phrasing (3.9/5), which demands very fine changes of right-hand touch to shape the little singing phrases and their decays. The piece belongs to the Romantic period and stands among Chopin’s major waltzes, combining pianistic virtuosity with intimate salon expression.