The Moiseiwitsch intrigues me. Plays with a romantic disregard to tempo that both attracts and bothers me at the same time. I really liked his rhapsody section. I could happily live with this as my only copy. Horowitz does his usual beyond human ability thing to make every note clear in a performance that left me cold, but there was no doubt that it was a typical Horowitz show piece. For me Barere's interpretation was just bizarre. Why would you take that piece at such a breakneck tempo? And that's not all, he couldn't keep it clean at that speed (but I liked the way he and Horowitz took the last two ending measures like a wisp of wind). At least Horowitz let you hear the notes, but I wanted more time with most passages. Gilels has wonderful moments, then there are stretches where he seems disengaged... and I agree with Tyson's clanging at times.
So for me, it's Richter. Technique, interpretation, power, and finesse. I've been a fan of this performance since the early 60's
BTW, did anyone else notice that Horowitz seems to playing a slightly different version? Several phrases were different.
