Whats harder, chopin etude op.25 no.1 or rachmaninoff prelude op.23 no.5?

The Chopin would be very very difficult for someone with small hands. The Rachmaninov is not one of his hardest preludes, but it's a formidable work. In most people's opinions, the Rachmaninov is clearly harder, but it's very rare that people actually play the chopin with real control over the simple melody, masked by (too) many notes. Of course, it's rare that people play anything with control really, but it's not an easy piece to play really well. Hope this helped, there is not really a definite answer. What do yout think?