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But as time goes on, finding the right teacher becomes critical even for the most gifted. When I was about 40 years old, I spend one year taking lessons from a famous pianist called Robert Goldsand, who was then about 80 years old and has since passed away. Goldsand had been a prodigy in Vienna, Austria in the early 1900s and as a boy learned from a famous teacher and pianist called Moriz Rosenthal. Rosenthal in turn had been taught piano by the previously mentioned Franz Liszt. Goldsand was a man of few words who still had the prodigy’s ease of tapping directly into his musicality. Each lesson felt like having a door slowly opened for me so I could squeeze through into his special paradise. At the end of each lesson, I was conscious of having to exit the same door.

Johannes Brahms (May 7, 1833 – April 3, 1897) — a German composer of romantic music; was considered the successor to Beethoven.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (January 27, 1756 – December 5, 1791) — considered the nearest thing to perfection in Western classical music; began showing musical ability as a toddler.

Johann Sebastian Bach (March 21, 1685 – July 28, 1750) — a German composer and organist of the Baroque period; universally regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time. Portrait by Elias Gottlob Haussmann, 1748

In a Goldsand lesson, you already knew the piece note perfect by memory. Your reason for turning up was to learn how to interpret, and being as old as he was and coming from Vienna, Goldsand was a stickler for tradition. His father-in-law had been an acquaintance of Johannes Brahms, fifth in line in the pantheon of great German composers that includes Bach, Mozart, Schubert and Beethoven. So when I started with a piece by Brahms, there was no doubt in either of our minds how it should be played — Goldsand’s way. This was a shock, not because I necessarily disagreed with Goldsand, but because there are certain composers that each musician feels instinctively connected to, and for me Brahms was one such. I thought I didn’t need guidance. Goldsand knew otherwise!

His guidance on Mozart proved equally invaluable. I have never been able to play Mozart, not because it is technically difficult, but because I lacked that special connection. Mozart by general consent is the nearest thing to perfection in Western classical music, and unless you get close it’s not really worth playing him — a wit once remarked that Mozart is too easy for amateurs and too difficult for professionals, meaning you can play the notes easily enough, but interpreting them is beyond the capability of most casual musicians. Previously I had never been able to get close, but bless his heart Goldsand got me a few millimeters closer. But our lessons stopped and he passed away, and I regret once again giving up on Mozart.

Like many other child prodigies turned world-famous musicians including everyone that I have named so far in this piece, Goldsand was Jewish. He escaped the Nazis and fled to the US where he continued performing and teaching to old age. Why Western classical musical talent is so concentrated in the Jewish peoples has never been explained. Outside the Western world, the popularity of Western classical music is sporadic. You find world-class musicians from Japan, Korea and China, but few from the Middle East, Africa or India. Lang Lang, the young pianist from China, promises to be the Vladimir Horowitz of the 21st century.

Music making is an endless journey, like anything else that’s hard and worthwhile. I have been playing the same pieces for 45 years and still find fresh things to say in them. I know I don’t play as well as Vladimir Horowitz or Lang Lang and never will, but I keep trying. Musicians everywhere in the world, prodigies to amateurs, seek perfection because music is the only language they truly know and without it they feel dumb and useless.