Originally Posted by QcCowboy

This is "up there" in difficulty.

Although, I must say that Prokoviev was an excellent pianist, and his music - while extremely difficult - falls very well under the fingers. Rachmaninov is another composer whose music jsut seems to "fit" no matter how hard it really is.

However, if I compare to the music of Hindemith, who was NOT a pianist, which is difficult and also does not really fall naturally under the hand. I love playing Hindemith, but I don't take as much pleasure from its technical difficulties.

The best thing is, if you are writing music that will be very challenging, be sure to bring it regularly to a pianist to double-check it and see where things could be awkward or even impossible.