Alfredo So hau-leung has some impressive admirers. One of them is Barbara Fei, one of Hong Kong's leading sopranos of the 1960s and 70s, who says: 'He is a marvellous pianist. He has such an innate sense of music. We held many concerts together at that time. It's a pity he didn't pursue a performing career.'
So disagrees. 'No, I am not talented,' he often repeats. So why was he hired to accompany Renata Tebaldi and Franco Corelli, two of the 20th century's greatest singers, when they visited Hong Kong in 1973 and gave two recitals? 'The good pianists had all gone abroad,' the 56-year-old explains with a self-effacing smile.
So gave up public performances after the Tebaldi and Corelli recitals and devoted himself to arts administration and then the entertainment business, only to return to the concert stage this year - three decades later.
'I did not have the conviction to go for a professional career,' he says. 'I am not the type who cannot live without Beethoven.'
Showbiz people know So as the one-time manager of Canto-pop queen Anita Mui Yim-fong and superstar couple Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Carina Lau Ka-ling. So's manner of talking about himself combines shrewdness and modesty in a way that perhaps more befits a veteran manager of artists than an artist himself.
So began learning to play the piano when he was five or six years old, but stopped after two years, only to resume lessons several years later.
He studied under some of the best teachers in Hong Kong in the 50s and 60s, including Annarosa Taddei, a student of the great pianist Alfred Cortot.