Brahms: The Piano Concertos; Fantasia
These performances mount the only serious competition as a  complete set to the Leon Fleisher/George Szell versions on Sony Classical. Emil  Gilels was an extraordinary virtuoso who decided to place his technical wizardry  in the service of the most disciplined and demanding classical masterpieces. No  piano concertos live up to this description more than the two by Brahms. Himself  a pianist, Brahms placed every purely musical stumbling block that he could in  front of the soloist--only audiences never notice because there's no gratuitous  display at all. A performer who has not mastered these pieces doesn't  necessarily miss notes; he or she just bores everyone to tears. Well, Gilels is  never dull, and neither is Eugen Jochum, whose spontaneous-sounding yet  sensitive accompaniments support his soloist every step of the way.--David  Hurwitz