Vladimir Ashkenazy - Ashkenazy Plays Chopin, Rachmaninov, Liszt, & Prokofiev

Ashkenazy was in his early 20s when he made these landmark recordings, It's inevitable that this evinces youthful fire but it's accompanied by a tempering rigorousness of mind and of execution... what emerges, is precisely that elevated marrying of technical accomplishment and intellectual control, devoid of flashy gestures... where poetic richness is required it's channeled through an astute modernity. There is great clarity, no over-romanticism, pedaling is invariably astutely presented, and the rhythm is resilient.