Uchida's family moved to Cologne when she was in her teens, but at 16 she returned to Vienna, this time with a determination to become a musician.

My options were to stay with my parents, go to the Cologne Conservatoire and study with a professor whom I disliked. Or I could go to an ordinary school, and simply be a nice ambassador's daughter. Or I could go back to Vienna, live in a student's hostel, and make something of the four years' study I had already done. That was a real turning point.

She studied with Richard Hauser, then in his last years; shortly before his death he asked her to be his assistant.

I said, "At my age I know nothing. How can I teach other people?' If I had said yes I would have been teaching in a conservatoire from the age of 20 to now.'

In fact, by the time she graduated and began winning prizes, Uchida already felt a compulsion to leave Vienna. Rebellion, she thinks, is natural and healthy in young people.

Vienna, musically, is wonderful. My time there was crucial. But what I minded particularly then was the idea that the Viennese way of playing music was always the right way. How do they know how Mozart is to be played? Even now, I don't know, and I'm asking the questions every day. Or Schubert or Beethoven - they thought they knew, because there was a tradition. There are many traditions.'

She had, she says, no clear idea where she wanted to live. Although America had some attractions, particularly the chance to work with Leon Fleisher, she decided to move to London, feeling its musical society to be more open to diverse ideas than other artistic centres. After 30 years in London, she doubts whether she will ever leave.

Interview by Brian Hunt