Suggestions for Classical Piano "works of merit"

Excellent recommendations, Newbee. I'll add a few more...

Debussy - the Paul Jacobs recording Newbee recommends is very good (originally issued on vinyl as HB73031). To this I would add: Moravec's performances of Debussy's "La Cathedrale engloutie," "Children's Corner Suite" and other pieces on Connoisseuer Society.

Gershwin - if you enjoy Gershwin's music from his Songbook, Malcolm Bolcom on Nonesuch is delightful and very well recorded by Marc Aubort (H71284 for the LP issue).

Liszt - for the Annees de Pelerinage, another excellent set are the performances by Aldo Ciccolini on EMI. I find Ciccolini's performances more characterful than the Berman performances, but both are good.

Schumann - If you're into vinyl, the John Lill recording issued on 2 LPs by Green Room Productions (4000/4001, Tony Faulkner recording engineer) is outstanding sonically, and the performances are very good (Fantasia in c, Faschingsschwank aus Wien, and Kinderszenen).
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The complete piano works of Gabriel Faure played by Kathryn Stott is wonderful.

Cheers.

Thanks TKAudio, Rushton and Newbee. I try new pieces by borrowing from our city library to see if I want to buy. These days they only deal in CD's, so as much as I appreciate vinyl(via a 1980's Goldmund Studietto) I have no way to audition Vinyl and no longer buy any new. I guess I will havre start picking up CD's from the web now as well since CD outlets seem to be dwindling. I wonder how long we'll be able to buy CD's? Times are changing, youth drives change, and all I hear from younger (20's) listeners is Playstation, hard drives storage, ipod's, etc

Having access to a good library is a great resource, Pscanli. While I was in a transition to a new city recently and without my turntable, I got to sample a lot of recordings/performances new to me by taking advantage of CDs available on loan from the library, and I enjoyed that tremendously. Still find myself buying lots of used and new vinyl though.
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Psacanli, something else to check out, unless you already heard these:

Brahms: Piano Concertos 1 and 2 with Riccardo Chailly and Nelson Freire.

Shostakovich: Piano Concertos Nos 1 & 2 on EMI with Mikhail Rudy and Mariss Jansons.
This cd also contains Symphony No.1 so it will be an added bonus. Concerto 1 is with Berlin PO, the second is with LSO. Symphony is with BPO as well. Exellent performance and pretty good quality recording.