When Audiofon producer and Miami lawyer Julian Kreeger invited Valentina Lisitsa and her husband Alexei Kuznetsoff to make a recording of two-piano music , he asked Lisitsa to do play some solo repertoire, too. He unexpectedly ended up with these two action-packed CDs. Recorded superbly at the University of Miami by Peter McGrath, her discs have not been edited; what you hear is exactly what Lisitsa played, a few wrong notes (no big deal) and all. Such electrifying pianism doesn't come around often. Lisitsa is a powerhouse pianist in the tradition of Martha Argerich — the highest possible praise. Like Argerich, she does not settle for mere technical display, but makes genuine music, even out of such deliciously shameless show-stoppers as Godowsky's Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes from "Die Fledermaus". Among other gems on the "Virtuosa" disc is Grigory Ginzburg's flashy Paraphrase on Figaro's Aria from Rossini's "Barber of Seville", another test of digital firepower that Lisitsa passes with aplomb. In several works, the pianist reveals equal doses of temperament and interpretive nuance.

The second disc is a more traditional recital of Mozart, Beethoven, Weber, Chopin, Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev. Everything is played with character, color and remarkable assurance.