Every Chopin Etude in Order of Difficulty

The etude as we know it today was not in existence before Chopin wrote these two sets. Published in the 1830s, Chopin not only expanded the possibilities of piano technique but elevated the "study" to an artform worthy of concert performance. They all retain the fundamental nature of a study by serving as tools to hone specific techniques and yet their evocative expressive tendencies lend them much credence as pure music (most of them anyhow—some are less musically interesting than others).

It goes without saying that there are a wide range of technical challenges contained within these twenty-four pieces. They run the gamut of finger gymnastics—perhaps even going past what was demanded of the standard repertoire at the time—with some of these etudes (particularly those in the "Elite" section) representing the pinnacle of their respective techniques rather than a stepping-stone for bigger things.

Even today nearly two centuries later, these etudes are still the litmus test for a virtuoso. Every pianist worth their salt must have several of them under their fingers if not the two sets in their entirety. Their functionality as technique-builders, concert pieces, and encore pieces has endured ever since their inception—with a couple ("Revolutionary, "Winter Wind") having particularly captured the public imagination.

*It must be noted that none of the nicknames for these works listed below were given to them by Chopin himself, and therefore should not be seen as an interpretative indicator.

0:00 Early Advanced (5/6)
0:24 Op.10 No.6 “Lament” (Guiomar Novaes)
1:36 Op.10 No.9 (Artur Rubinstein)
2:23 Op.25 No.7 “Cello” (Harriet Cohen)
3:50 Op.10 No.3 “Tristesse” (Claudio Arrau)
4:50 Op.25 No.2 “The Bees” (Solomon)
5:26 Advanced (6/7)
5:32 Op.25 No.9 “Butterfly” (Alicia de Larrocha)
6:34 Op.25 No.1 “Aeolian Harp” (Nikita Magaloff)
7:56 Op.25 No.3 “The Horseman” (Mieczysław Horszowski)
8:24 Op.25 No.5 “Wrong Note” (Sviatoslav Richter)
9:36 Op.10 No.5 “Black Key” (Guiomar Novaes)
10:19 Op.10 No.12 “Revolutionary” (Vladimir Horowitz)
11:10 Op.10 No.11 “Arpeggio” (Irene Scharrer)
12:06 Op.25 No.12 “Ocean” (Grigory Sokolov)
13:16 Very Advanced (7/7+)
13:23 Op.25 No.10 “Octaves” (György Cziffra)
14:18 Op.10 No.8 “Sunshine” (Tania Achot-Haroutounian)
14:59 Op.25 No.4 “Paganini” (Lubov Timofeyeva)
15:37 Op.10 No.10 (Alfred Cortot)
16:17 Op.10 No.7 “Toccata” (David Saperton)
16:56 Op.25 No.8 “Sixths” (Robert Lortat)
17:43 Elite (Difficulty Level: 7+/7++)
17:50 Op.25 No.11 “Winter Wind” (György Cziffra)
18:28 Op.10 No.1 “Waterfall” (Martha Argerich)
19:34 Op.10 No.4 “Torrent” (Eliso Virsaladze)
20:24 Op.10 No.2 “Chromatic” (Sergio Fiorentino)
20:56 Op.25 No.6 “Thirds” (Josef Lhévinne)