Pianist Nami Ejiri studied at Toho Gakuen in her native Tokyo, and, according to the program booklet at her recital Friday evening at Brooklyn’s Bargemusic, now “perfects her art” in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Before the concert, this statement appeared to be hyperbolic, but as the evening progressed, it began to seem like an understatement.

Ms. Ejiri opened with three sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti, each designed to showcase a different aspect of her well-stocked armamentarium. The D Major K.119/ L.415 offered her an opportunity to play in a steely-fingered manner — strong, decisive, commanding. Having long arms, Ms. Ejiri sits far from the keyboard and is especially adept at crosshand technique.

The B Minor K.87/L. 33 exhibited this versatile artist’s poetic side, an unhurried meditation of superb balance. And the D Minor K.141/L. 422 was a romance with a distinctly Iberian sound; Ms. Ejiri wove it expertly into the fabric of her painstakingly measured performance.

The big work of the night was Robert Schumann’s “Carnaval,” which is not to be taken for “Carnival Jest From Vienna,” another of his keyboard pieces. This major essay includes a section titled “Papillons,” which should not be mistaken for an entire suite of sketches of the same name that Schumann had composed earlier. To make matters even more complicated, the music of the original “Papillons” is quoted in “Carnaval,” although in other places besides the “Papillons” movement. A little confused? Perhaps this is a bad time to mention that the personal friends Schumann portrays in “Carnaval” are sometimes creatures of his own vivid imagination.

Ms. Ejiri moved closer to the piano for this notoriously difficult work, and proceeded to spin it not only with depth of feeling but also with an uncanny display of accuracy. Some of the movements — Valse noble for one — were quite breathtaking. All were sensitively intoned with varying shades and hues. At intermission, it seemed this was to be an altogether superb display of musicality.

And so it was, but with a caveat. I am not a particular fan of virtuosity for its own sake, and therefore found the second half of the evening much less satisfying. Ms. Ejiri has the ability to feed us all a tremendous amount of notes in a short time, but one demonstration of this talent would have been plenty for this listener.

She began lovingly with perennial favorite Liebestraum No. 3 by Franz Liszt, a song beloved at the turn of the last century and even made into a pop tune in the 1940s. Her rendition was unabashedly romantic and had the crowd eating out of her hand.

But then Ms. Ejiri followed this with three movements of Liszt’s Italian years from Les Années de pèlerinage. “You don’t have technique, technique has you,” Arnold Schoenberg once remarked. Here, Liszt’s depictions of gondoliers and peasant dancers were swallowed in digital filigree, somewhat devoid of picturesque content. Ms. Ejiri was rather un-Lisztian in her demure flourishes. Some might call this modesty tasteful, but tasteful is not necessarily desirable with this flamboyant composer.

Mily Balakirev may have been the little finger of the “mighty handful,” but he did write some interesting pieces. Unfortunately, “Islamey: An Oriental Fantasy” is not one of them. This is truly a piece that exists strictly to show off a pianist’s dexterity, and Ms. Ejiri traversed it magnificently. Friday’s entire recital had the shape and even the details of an old-fashioned Vladimir Horowitz night at Carnegie Hall, and Ms. Ejiri’s technical wizardry actually compares favorably with that of the old legend.

So, okay, we get it. She can play anything. Now let’s hear some music.