Whereas Pollini (DG) plays only the 24 Preludes of Op. 28, Ashkenazy includes two more—in C sharp minor, Op. 45 and A flat—as well as the three Impromptus and the Fantaisie-impromptu. Quantity is certainly not everything. But when honours are so equally divided in Op. 28 as they are here, obviously it is a strong point in favour of the new CD. Both players characterize the 24 pieces with great potency and immediacy, but in approach I would describe Ashkenazy as a little more subjective than Pollini, allowing the music to come closer to his own heart. The familiar A major Waltz (No. 7), for instance, in his hands becomes a tender love-poem in miniature. I also prefer his less angular rubato in No. 17 in A flat and No. 21 in B flat, and the little extra time he allows one or two other pieces to breathe—not least the delicate semiquaver tracery of No. 23 in F. But needless to say Pollini has his triumphs too, not least by reason of the aristocratic keyboard elegance and command preserved in stormier outbursts.
In actual sound, Pollini's disc is on the whole the cooler and clearer, Ashkenazy's the closer and warmer—occasionally you might even think it a little too resonant (it seems that several different recording venues were involved). In the Impromptus I particularly enjoyed his gracious, old-world elegance in the second and his effortlessly cascading semiquavers and speaking melodic line in the fourth.'