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.
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.
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.
The piece feels like a calm but taut journey, alternating suspended breaths and rhythmic surges that imply sudden turns rather than a continuous melody. The main technical challenges concern Phrasing (2.5/5) and Dynamics (2.5/5): you will need to craft links and micro-dynamic breaks so phrases can breathe without losing their line, and control extremely fine touch contrasts — use a supple wrist for shaping attacks and precise arm weight adjustments to vary sound levels within the same cell. The exact place of this piece in Dutilleux’s catalogue is not specified here, but it is a solo piano work that fits within his concentrated, refined writing. I give no recommended recordings because I am not certain of a single, widely recognized reference for this specific piece.