All you piano lovers out there, listen up! This brilliant twenty-seven-year-old Russian is the real goods, the kind of talent that comes along once or twice in a generation. These two CDs beautifully capture her formidable artistic temperament and transcendent virtuosity: dazzling passagework, thunderous octaves, a clear sence of structure, and subtle, beautifully colored phrasing. Valentina has the rare gift, for instance, of generating enormous volumes of sound without ever sounding like she's pounding the keyboard; her tone is always beautiful. She puts me in mind of a young Martha Argerich.

The first disk suggests her interpretive range. Proper Mozartians may be startled by her aggressive, pointed K. 332; I find it bracing and provocative. The Chopin Berceuse, is still, crystalline perfection. And the transition from Rachmaninoff's deeply romantic Preludes to Prokofiev's sardonic Sonata No. 7, with both superbly rendered, is breathtaking.

Virtuosa Valentina!, devoted largely to transcriptions, is somewhat like a meal consisting entirely of desserts—except that these delights never cloyed my palate. Try La Campanella—you'll be hooked. Recorded in Miami by Peter McGrath using his trusty Schoeps spherical stereo microphone and Nagra-D, these stunningly dynamic CDs are among the best-sounding piano recordings I've heard. They'll tell you a lot about how well your system can handle the piano. A good hall, minimal miking, no signal processing and, amazingly, no editing of the performances—a recipe for excellence. Occasional slips can be heard if you listen hard for them, but I feel sorry for you if that's your pleasure. These disks carry the excitement of introducing a major artist, so be the first on your block....

Bonus recommendation: The same sessions yielded two duo-piano CDs (Audiofon 72053 & 72054) featuring Valentina and her husband Alexei Kuznetsoff. Listening to them play together is like hearing four hands directed by a single brain. On Vol. 1 they deliver a Rachmaninoff Suite No. 1 that, for me, outdoes the Argerich/Rabinovitch on Teldec. A highlight of Vol. 2 Is Alfred Schnittke's Gogol Suite, in his fascinating pastiche style. Same great sound. Buy'em.