In his latest album, Chinese piano phenom Lang Lang has gone back to basics, playing pieces he learnt as a child.

Opening this 72-minute anthology are works such as J. S. Bach's Prelude In C Major from Book One of The Well-Tempered Clavier and Beethoven's immortal Fur Elise. He plays these easy pieces with simplicity and finesse.

However, in the familiar first movement of Mozart's Sonata Facile In C Major (K.545), he attempts some ornamentations, which get annoying on repeated listening.

Debussy's Clair De Lune comes across as being too slow, while Tekla Bardazewska-Baranowska's The Maiden's Prayer sounds banal.

Surely, Mozart's Variations on Ah, Vous Dirai-Je Maman (Twinkle Twinkle Little Star) is beyond the technique of piano beginners, as is Mendelssohn's Spinning Song and Debussy's Gradus Ad Parnassum (Children's Corner Suite).

Similarly, he would not have known of pieces by Max Richter, Yann Tiersen or Ryuichi Sakamoto growing up in the city of Shenyang.

But Japanese film composer Sakamoto's Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence receives a grandstanding rendition.

The super-deluxe edition of this album features two discs and includes a handsome hardcover book of scores and personal insights, with 29 pieces in all.

This is not a terrible album, but it could have been much better.