Talent, charisma, great teachers and a bit of luck have helped, but it was mostly hard work that made Maxim Vengerov one of the world's best violinists, he tells Barney Zwartz.
But for an accident of orchestral seating, the world might have lost what many consider the world's leading violinist.
Maxim Vengerov's father, an oboist in the Novosibirsk Philharmonic Orchestra, used to take him to rehearsals and leave the toddler to snooze in the stalls. "I couldn't find him because the woodwind section is hidden deep in the orchestra. That's why I didn't want to play the oboe, because nobody will see me," says the 41-year-old. 
Fortunately, there were other reasons to choose the violin. "I loved the instrument for its musical soul and singing qualities, I love its lyrical aspects. It's amazing what you can do with a four-stringed instrument," he says.
Australian audiences will get to see just what Vengerov - widely considered the greatest living exponent of the Russian violin tradition, along with his fellow-Siberian Vadim Repin - can do when he makes a recital tour to celebrate the 70th anniversary of Musica Viva, the Australian chamber music organisation.
"It's quite a magical instrument if you look at it. It is even more complex than any other instrument because it is so fine, and this requires fine tuning not only of the fingers and body but of the mind to listen to the colour you are producing. If I were to compare playing the violin with a medical job I would say we are like brain surgeons because it requires the tiniest details to make it right."
Vengerov began learning at four, and by the time he was 10 he was touring overseas and winning international competitions. He had a perfect pedigree, with two musician parents - his mother conducted a 500-voice choir - and lots of encouragement.
What does it take to be a great violinist? Talent of course, but that is just the start. "You have to love working. Talent is maybe only 5 per cent, 95 per cent is work."
Next, one has to have the right environment, great teachers and parental involvement. "The parents have to watch you and you have to practise a lot. You have to form your technique when you are five years old, or maybe six. Seven is too late because the muscles become less flexible already," Vengerov says.
After that, one needs society's support. "It takes so much education. Just to be a violinist is not good enough. For young musicians to play the phenomenal concertos of Beethoven and Brahms, and interpret them the right way, you have to understand the orchestra too. This means you have to know how to lead an orchestra, meaning conducting."
Vengerov has studied baroque violin, viola and conducting.
"So every time I come back to the standard repertoire - Brahms, Sibelius, Tchaikovsky concertos - every new experience I have gone through in life and music will influence my playing." And then there is one more ingredient - probably only a few per cent, says Vengerov, but essential - and that is luck. "Without this ingredient you can't make it as a violinist. Then you have to have charisma. And to feel the stage, you need to feel the people you are playing for. So there are a lot of factors that have to come together."
Vengerov is always extending his repertoire, each year developing a different recital program and new concertos. Last year he learnt a Chinese concerto, the Butterfly Lovers' Concerto, and played it in China.
The Melbourne recital is on the 70th anniversary of Musica Viva's first concert at the Sydney Conservatorium, during which there was a city-wide power failure. Founder Richard Goldner borrowed a generator to light the music stands, and cars lit the auditorium entrance with their headlights.
Maxim Vengerov performs at Melbourne's Hamer Hall on   December 8.
musicaviva.com.au