Top 100 Hardest Violin Pieces

Turn on subtitles for running commentary, and please read the description!

As with all my “100 hardest” lists, the order of the pieces needs to be taken with a lot of salt. The order is highly approximate at best and of course extremely subjective; everybody will have a different idea of what techniques or what styles are the most difficult.

The main purpose of this video is to entertain and educate. The excerpts used are not chosen for their difficulty but for their variety, and they cover the whole of violin technique from the Baroque era to the present, utilizing performances from famous greats such as Oistrakh, Heifetz, Menuhin—as well as lesser-known violinists such as Leila Josefowicz and Christian Tetzlaff.

And the honorable mentions list—dedicated to extremely difficult works that couldn't make the video either for the sake of variation, or simply because I didn't have sheet music for it:

Sessions Sonata for Solo Violin
Berio Sequenza VIII for Solo Violin
Tishchenko Violin Concertos
Rautavaara Violin Concerto
Hába Violin Concerto
Hába Violin Fantasy
Carrillo Violin Concertos
Kim I brindisi.
Maxwell Davies Violin Concerto
Schnittke Violin Concertos
Bach/Kim Air in G
Wieniawski L’École moderne
Schmidt-Liszt Piano Sonata for Violin
Ikebe Violin Concerto
Shlomo Violin Concerto
Takemitsu Far calls. Coming, far!
Milstein-Liszt Mephisto Waltz No.1
Hristoskov Caprices
Penderecki Violin Concerto
Hubay Carmen Fantasy
Paganini I palpiti
Bloch Violin Concerto
Tedesco Concerto
Higdon Violin Concerto
Finnissy Mississippi Hornpipes
Busoni Violin Concerto
Wyschnegradsky Chant douloureux et étude
Copland Violin Sonata
Pärt Fratres
Reger Violin Sonatas
Dvořák Violin Sonata
Grieg Violin Sonatas
Janáček Violin Sonata
Lekeu Violin Sonata

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Special thanks to Jack, as well as all the performers who made this video possible.