I am impressed when a noted pianist like Leslie Kinton makes the following unequivocal statement: >Beyond doubt, Beethoven op. 106 (the "Hammerklavier") is technically, >intellectually, musically, in every way, the most difficult masterpiece >written for the piano. Nothing else even comes close. I only just retrieved my loaned CD of Marc-Andre Hamelin (whom we Yankees now claim as one of our own, by virtue of his living near Philadelphia, despite his hailing from a nation of hockey players) performing Godowsky's studies on Chopin's etudes. As I recall, someone on this list nominated Godowsky as the source of the "Most Difficult Piano Music". But I thought I would provide a learned contrast to Mr. Kinton's claim. According to the liner notes on the CD, the late reknowned critic Harold Shonberg claimed Godowsky's studies were >probably the most impossibly difficult things ever written for the piano. >These are fantastic exercises that push piano technique to heights >undreamed of even by Liszt. As for me, I could have imagined playing the Hammerklavier (very badly), but I cannot even imagine playing these tortuous exercises by Godowsky. Heck, listening to Hamelin performing, I frequently guessed wrong about how many hands he was using. The two CD set, by the way, is hyperion CDA67411/2. Larry