Scriabin 7th sonata Neuhaus recording discrepancy

[auralvertigo]

Greetings!

I came across Heinrich Neuhaus' recording of Scriabins 7th sonata and was very intrigued. The recording is only 8:59 which compared to other recordings some of which go beyond 16 minutes made me begin to wonder why.

The recording's on YouTube. It's an old recording and there's definitely some mistakes, but it's probably my favorite recording of it. I feel like it's easier to grasp some of the bigger ideas without losing perspective.

It seems possible that early recordings like this could have higher tempos to try and fit more on to a recording. It also seems possible that as the recording era began to take place the sought after perfection in the recordings made pianists more cautious causing them to slow down.

What do you think? I really interested to hear what you might have to say as this sort of has a golden age of piano connotation to it.

Cheers!