Piano Forum

Now that I've listened to that passage again in each clip, I suppose one might justifiably conclude that.  I do think Kissin's trill is much more elegant!  I dislike that Barenboim accentuates the final note of the trill, which creates the impression it's being played before the beat; perhaps he would claim (or, in any event, should be permitted) some artistic license there. 

Here are the links once again, with deep linking to the passage in question:

Barenboim - t=0m48s

Kissin - t=0m58s

I've become conditioned not to be unduly upset by unsettling ornaments, though, or to judge an entire performance based on that point.  I would offer the example of an extended trill with a prefix or vorschlag (typically a double appoggiatura that leads into the trill), as in the beginning of Chopin's Nocturne Op. 55 No. 2.  Every source I've read about the execution of such a trill states unequivocally that the prefix begins on the beat; in every professional recording I've heard to date, even Rubinstein, it anticipates the beat instead.

A possible explanation I've considered is that the musician may be consciously choosing to play something the way he or she believes the audience expects to hear it.  It's a regular occurrence in the evolution of language that a decidedly incorrect variant becomes so widespread and popularly embraced that it's believed to be correct—and the erstwhile correct form would then be thought "wrong."  (I'm so inured to hearing "dissect" pronounced DYE-sect on television that I might fall out of my chair if I somebody actually said "dis-SECT" instead.)