It would not amaze me if thousands of pianists could trace back their ancestry to a common demoninator.Thal
I bet most of us can go back to Beethoven one way or another. I know I can - I was taught by a guy whose teacher was a pupil of Ravel and I once traced a link back from there. (Actually my teacher in that case wasn't much help to me, ironically!) My wife studied with a pupil of a pupil of Neuhaus. And so on....It's a bit like that often-quoted bit of data that almost anyone in the world is linked to almost anyone else by at most 5 (or is it 6?) mutual acquaintances.
... trace back their ancestry to a common demoninator.Thal