We are told that besides her concerts, this American pianist gives ''one-woman shows'' based on the lives of Clara Schumann and Teresa Carreno. Her playing suggests that of these two legendary ladies, it's the mantle of the Venezuelan firebrand that she would most like to have inherited. Clara would not have countenanced such unbridled temperament. True, Schumann did admit to a ''positively wild love'' in some of the movements of Kreisleriana. Yet I can't think he meant the opening and penultimate numbers to explode with such whirlwind turbulence, or that the flow of No. 2 should be so emotionally elasticated (with the minim chord that ends the recurrent leading motif nearly always elongated by one, two or more beats), or the deep inner calm of No. 4 disturbed by little impulsive surges, or indeed that points of emphasis throughout the whole work should be so insistently underlined.
Faschingsschwank aus Wien is despatched with similar vehemence and sheer keyboard bravado, its flanking movements questionably fast and its accentuation frequently overmarked. But here she so relishes the composer's teasing carnival caprice that why not just sit back and enjoy it too? Her fingers certainly do whatever she asks of them, and the recording is bright.'