I have been out of town for my mothers funeral so I haven't had a chance to keep up here. I agree that Pollini and Moravec are two very different Debussy players. Moravec has that warm buttery tone while Pollini has such fine etching and leonine strength. The music however, can survive both approaches. I prefer M.P. here, but for years the only recordings that I knew of the Debussy Preludes were those of Michelangelo, who was M.P. teacher. Pollini very different Art does lead to equally exquisite poetry.
Barenboim has stated throughout his career that he wants to emulate Furtwangler. He was the chief conductor here in Chicago for many years so I am very familiar with his work. A recording that he made of Beethovens Third Piano Concerto, when he was a teenager and before discovering his Furtwangler Passion, was one of my earliest acquired ops. Lets just say that D.B. has phenomenal natural musical instincts, but in attempting to superimpose the style of W.F., he frequently misfires. He just doesn't seem to have that innate ability to convey his vision to others unless he slows things down to near stasis, but without the inner light that a Furt or Cell had, it just sounds slow and bloated