Donald Satz wrote:

>As he leaves it at the moment, John has talked up Ashkenazy and
>Fleisher but provides no insight or information as to what makes
>them great performances or in what ways they are as good or better
>than comparative versions.  Does he consider them superior to Richter,
>Tverskaya, Kempff, Damgaard, Planes, Brendel, etc.? Why? Maybe he will
>give us his analysis, and we can certainly benefit from additional
>informed opinions.

Far be it for me, as Don suggests, to convey a comparative analysis to
this list without first having listened seriously to all of the above,
plus a half dozen other versions Don did not include in his survey:
Hess, Schiff, Arrau, Klein, Jando, Bilson.  Although the old Hess was my
"imprint," and I have listened at least once to the Richter, the Schiff
and the Arrau, I do not pretend to be a music critic.  To borrow a page
from Don's book, the Ashkenazy and the Fleisher are simply the only
versions in my "library," and with these two I hear valid and expressive
statements of the music.

John Dalmas
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