Ashkenazy's Rachmaninoff G Minor Prelude

Alla marcia, “in the style of a march”:

Emil Gilels played this prelude at a front in World War II, in support for the Soviet militaryforces fighting in the war. The narrator says (in Russian): “Gilels is playing at the front, to remind us what the war is worth fighting for: Immortal music!”

Wikipedia

The prelude is the most performed and recorded piece of Rachmaninoff’s Op. 23 prelude set. Of all the versions I’ve heard (believe me, a lot of them), Ashkenazy’s version is coarse, rough, resilient, and strong. In my pov, though classical performers are somewhat free to interpret any piece written down, Ashkenazy’s way is the right way that it should be played.