In 1974, Andrei Gavrilov was 18, a promising pianist who was practising piano 14 hours a day and dreaming that one day, maybe in 10 years' time, he would enter the Soviet Union's most prestigious piano competition, the Tchaikovsky.
Then he got a phone call from the Minister of Culture.
'For the Tchaikovsky Competition we would like to have a dark horse, very young, and it will be you,' was the message. He had just three weeks to prepare the programme, but he won.
Now he lives in Germany, after leaving his country in 1985, the first Soviet to have been granted permission to remain in the West without having to file for political asylum.
Next week Gavrilov, who is still considered one of the world's finest soloists, will make his Hong Kong debut at the second International Piano Festival, with a programme of works by Scriabin, Chopin and Grieg.
This very physical performer is just one of four recitalists in an excellent lineup of concerts at City Hall which also includes Nikolai Demidenko, Michael Rudy and Vladimir Ovchinnikov.