Jeffrey Hall:

>I haven't heard it, but Balakirev's Islamaey, Oriental Fantasty is supposed
>to be a real knuckle-buster.

As a matter of fact, Ravel composed Gaspard de la nuit in part to surpass
Islamey in its technical difficulty, just as Islamey was composed to
surpass the Liszt Transcendental Etudes.

Steve Schwartz