Romance

Lang Lang’s brilliant showmanship here is channelled through some of the piano’s most intimate, tender moments. Romance is an album that captures his playing at its most personal. The musical balance works well—Bach’s “Air on the G String” marks out a moment of peace after Liszt’s passionate Liebestraum no. 3. Hans Zimmer’s anthemic “Gladiator Rhapsody” theme lights the way from Chopin’s shimmering “Aeolian Harp” Étude, while Anne Dudley’s “Poldark Prelude” brings us briefly to stormy Cornwall before Liszt calms the soul and Tchaikovsky guides us home to the fireside.