On the eve of his Australian tour, the Spanish pianist explains why he hasn’t yet decided to be a professional musician.

Growing up in Spain, what were your first musical memories?

I’m from a very, very little village in the south of Spain, and I think my first musical memory could be from the big band in my village or maybe from some concerts in nearby village by some Spanish pianists. But I remember concerts in Seville by Radu Lupu, Krystian Zimerman, Maria João Pires and Gregory Sokolov – that level of pianist – when I was a student.

Was there a lot of music around when you were growing up?

Not in my village. The tradition was closer to big band music – clarinet, saxophone, those kinds of instruments. But Seville was one hour from my village and there in the Conservatoire they had an orchestra and in that time we were receiving visits from big name pianists. It was encouraging for me to have the opportunity to see those giants, legends of the piano.

I understand you initially wanted to play the clarinet. What convinced you to switch to the piano?

I started with the piano when I was eight and the summer...