UPDATE:
I listened to a bunch of recordings mentioned today. The piano recordings were unbelievably revealing tools. The power of the Colom recordings and also the Schiff pushed the speakers for dynamics, subtlety, honesty of color, hall reverb, and yes --piano bench noise and the pianist breathing or moving.
Some passages, it was clear that the hands were separated on the piano -- with the towers. The two way speakers mushed things together a bit.
In other passages, it was the piano's treble region that really brought out differences -- were they rinky-tinky highs or shimmery, ringing highs? That was a clear difference which spoke, again, in favor of the tower.
The French horn pieces were excellent, too. That is an instrument with a lot of condensed complexity -- and quirks. I can see now why it is such a test for speakers.
The more boring of the two speakers, the ribbon tower, did a far better job than the two way stand mount with these instruments. When I added the subs and dialed them in, color and space flooded in while the towers retained their honesty.