An audience of billions saw him play at the opening of the Beijing Olympics. He’s received China’s ultimate honour: a panda named after him. At 26, pianist Lang Lang is the superstar face of ascendant China.

His solo recital at the Proms, the first since Kissin 11 years ago, had hopeful crowds swarming outside in search of a ticket.

You don’t come to Lang Lang expecting subtlety but his power to draw attention to classical music is unrivalled. The average age of the audience must have dropped by about 30 years. Velvet bows, short socks and colouring books were a sine qua non yesterday afternoon.

To add further excitement, he brought along the diminutive virtuoso, Marc Yu, a nine-year-old Californian, who joined him impressively in Schubert’s F minor Fantasia D940. This is a late work of such tender poignancy that anyone expecting fireworks might have been disappointed.

Parents despairingly nudged their dozing offspring to at least have the decency to sit up straight while this tiny prodigy lost himself in emotive Schubertian melancholy. According to his mother, Marc was already thoroughly enjoying concerts when he was “still in diapers”.

Lang Lang opened with Mozart’s B flat Sonata K333. This was not his best shot. He pulls the music around like a contortionist, losing all clarity of line.

There’s no question this pianist has a dazzling technique. True, his tendency to fling up his hands mid phrase, like an ecstatic St Francis receiving the stigmata, takes some getting used to. But he cajoled astonishing feathery pianissimos in la fille aux cheveau de linand in the shimmering Chinese melody Moonlight Reflections. He also thumped stylishly in Chopin’s Grande Polonaise and swaggeringly in Liszt’s Second Hungarian Rhapsody.

As yet, there’s not much between these extremes, which can give his playing an element of caricature rather than interpretation. The name Liberace comes to mind but Lang Lang is in a different musical league.

His brilliant showmanship made a circus ring of the spotlit centre of the Albert Hall. When he brought on his father to play traditional Chinese music as an encore, the applause was deafening.