Chinese pianist Lang Lang has a right to do a little laurel-resting after two decades of hit albums that have, among other things, inspired some 40 million Chinese children to take up the piano.

Thus his previous albums have been mined for greatest-hits collections, of which Piano Magic is one.

It follows on 2017's Romance, also issued by Sony Classical, and aims to cover a range of moods as opposed to the more restricted one on the earlier release.

The question, as with any greatest-hits album, is whether you would get a better sense of the pianist by going back to the original releases, and here the answer is mixed.

Those new to the pianist will certainly get a taste of his way with, specifically Chopin, with rapid-fire fingerwork not foreclosing a certain impishness.

Sample the Polonaise in A flat major, Op.

53 ("Heroic"), to hear how the grand Romantic tradition lives on in Lang's work.

And the Bach Air on the G string, streamed more than 40 million times, is eloquent testimony to Lang Lang's way of devising novel and compelling rehearings of very familiar music, and connecting with listeners with these.

On the other hand, there are idiosyncratic readings here (like the opening Mozart Rondo alla Turca and especially Scott Joplin's The Entertainer at the end) that probably worked better in their original contexts.

Reasonably well mastered, this is a feasible choice for someone wanting an introduction to this pianistic phenomenon.