Kreso,
Many thanks for posting Gilels' discography!
Although I believe his Concerto No1 is a jewel, and Polonaises and Sonatas sets are tremendous, there are some of his Chopin recordings I don't like as much.
With all my greatest admiration, love, and respect to Gilels, I feel his set of complete Preludes is quite disappoiniting. I equally dislike his Mazurcas. It seems he was too serious of a musician for those miniatures, and the fact he played Preludes only ones, and recorded Mazurcas only live later in his life, confirms that the Great Maestro did not feel himself ready for that type of music.
Anyway, sometimes, just out of curiosity I listen back to those recordings wondering--how come I don't like them, but keep coming back again and again? It does not happen with Ashkenazy or Pollini recordings, when nothing seems to bother there, but once you heard their recordings you don't want to experience them again...
Let's not forget Gould's Brahms. It is on a completely different eschelon.
Contrapunctus,
I know you are not the most rational person on the board, and I am not going to argue with you.
Don't take me wrong, I admire Gould and consider him as one of the greatest minds of the 20th and very possibly of the 21st century, in piano, but common...
To compare Gould's and Gilels' Brahms is the same as to compare a mad scientist in his lab and a human being, who seems to understand in life everything.