I was beginning to realise that this boy was more than ordinarily gifted as a musician. He was learning the piano and there was promise of a great future. He had a good local teacher.

The night before he called, my wife Brenda and I had been in town and we had bought a long-playing record. It had two Beethoven pieces on it. On one side was the Moonlight Sonata and on the other was the Apassionata Sonata. It was the Apassionata Sonata that I most wanted to hear. I think that the pianist was Daniel Barenboim - certainly someone great and famous.

As David stood at the door I asked him if he knew about Beethoven's Apassionata Sonata. He didn't know much about it, so I said, "We got a record just last night and we played it and it's gorgeous! Would you like to come in and hear it?"

David was very enthusiastic so I brought him into the living room and I could see straightaway that he was quite amazed by it. I said to myself, "I think he ought to be left alone to hear this." I tiptoed out to the kitchen where Brenda was working at the kitchen sink, and said, "I'm playing the Apassionata Sonata to David and he is just over the moon about it."

Brenda looked up from what she was doing and said, "When it's finished put it in the folder and give it to him."

I was startled for a moment, but Brenda always had the right reaction to everything, so that is exactly what I did.

David's career went on and he began travelling to Auckland for tuition from Janetta McStay and developing as a pianist - a great pianist as it turned out, a pianist with a worldwide reputation. He must have been about twelve on the morning he called at the manse and listened to the Beethoven record.

David's next move was to the University of Auckland where he studied for a Bachelor of Music. He won the National Concerto Competition and went on to study at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore where he took a masters degree. At the Juilliard School of Music in New York City he was in a Professional Studies program and met Robelyn Schrade who was completing a Masters Degree in music. Robelyn's family is quite famous throughout the Northeastern United States. They are all themselves highly successful pianists and have a music festival in Massachusetts that was listed in Time Magazine a few years ago as one of the most successful small festivals in the US. David and Robelyn were married and David did not return to New Zealand.

After that I lost contact with David. I moved from Gisborne to become a Professor at Knox College in Dunedin. I kept asking questions about David but all I heard was that he was going from strength to strength as a concert pianist.

Some thirty years later I was sitting alone at home one Saturday night as Brenda was terminally ill in hospital. The phone rang and it was David James. "I am just passing through Christchurch" he said, "and I managed to find your phone number. I am waiting for a plane. I just wanted to be in touch."

"I have thought about you so much over the years, David," I said.

"I wanted to tell you," David said, " that I have never forgotten about you, and one thing I remember so vividly was the day you let me hear Beethoven's Apassionata Sonata. It was like a milestone in my musical understanding and that Saturday morning has stood out in my mind. One of these days - I don't know when it will be - when I am able to play a concert in Christchurch, I am going to play the Apassionata Sonata at a public concert and I will be playing it especially for you."

You can imagine how overwhelmed I was by that. David has been back and forth to visit his mother and I have met his family including his wonderful little daughter Lynelle who is indeed a musical prodigy. She has shown promise from her earliest days finding chords on the piano as soon as she could reach the keys. She has been playing at public concerts since she was seven. She is now fifteen and an unbelievably accomplished pianist.

David and Lynelle James Photo source David James

I read recently that New Zealand pianist Michael Houston said that when he was a youngster his mother gave him a record of a great pianist playing the Apassionata Sonata and he regards that as a milestone in his musical understanding. It seems that there is true magic in that music.

I myself first heard the Apassionata Sonata played by Backhaus in the Wanganui Opera House. I queued after school to hear him play this piece. It has always been in my mind that the slow movement of that sonata has a special power about it. When I hear the first chords of that movement I feel a sense of indescribable confidence in the fate of humanity and believe that the world is safe!

Programme for the concert on 4 April in Christchurch

Part 1

The first half will be performed by Lynelle James.

The second half will be performed by David James.