The nomination of the performance by Vladimir Ashkenazy of the24 Preludes
and Fugues of Shostakovich intrigued me, so I bought them.  Ian Crisp had
declared Shostakovich as the composer who dominates the twentieth century
musical landscape (he has more pieces in the MCML poll than anyone else)
and I'm delving into this man's music with great gusto and pleasure.
Thank you, Ian, for your work on this poll.

My question: what do you think of Ashkenazy's performance in respect to
that of Tatiana Nikolayeva? And then, which performance of hers? the '87
on Melodiya or the Hyperion CDs?

Susan