Hall Jeffrey <[log in to unmask]> wrote of Balakirev's Islamey:

>For the record, Berezovsky's recording on Teldec gets a rosette in the
>Penguin Guide and I've heard good things elsewhere about the recordings
>of Julius Katchen and Simon Barere.

Berezovsky's recording is pretty solid.  I have not yet heard Bronfman's
but he supposedly uses a different version (?earlier).  Barere is very fast
and exciting.  The sound is dated.  I've heard of the existence of another
Barere performance- perhaps an outake which is supposed to be better than
the one usually heard.  Does anyone know about this? I learned of it from
Harold Schonberg..  Another worthy performance is by Panyas Lyras, a silver
medalist in the Van Cliburn Competition, when this recording was made.  I
wish Ivo Pogorelich would record it.  I saw him do it for an encore in a NY
recital.

Alan J. Briker