Tom Warren wrote:

>Which brings me to ask: Can these composers of "impossible to play" pieces
>play them themselves? If not, I second Kar's motion: Why compose them at
>all?

Sorabji perfomed many of his works.  He gave the first and for a very long
time only perfomance of the full *Opus Clavicembalisticum* himself.  It
must have been a remarkable concert.  Sorabji played this 4 hour monster
apparently with only short breaks and in the end he was so exhausted and
dehydrated from sweating that he had to be carried from the stage (if this
is not a tale...) ...anyway he could play what he composed!

Achim Breiling