Back in the seventies a friend asked me to accompany him to hear Haitink conduct Mahler on the South Bank. I declined saying I didn't really care for Mahler. He, being a piano student at the RCM, explained that one didn't go to concerts for the music but for the musician – to be party to the miracle of top class music making. If the music was well performed then it didn't matter whether you like it or not, it would still move you – a matter of heart rather than taste. I didn't understand. And in the same year I turned down opportunities to see both Richter and Michelangeli, fool that I was.