Both the talented and talentless must work at it. The difference between the two is the speed of learning. If a talented person does not work at it, a talentless person who works at it will surpass the talented easily.
However, an environment conducive to learning will always trump innate talent. For example, becoming multilingual while growing up in a European country is considered the norm. Speaking only English probably means you're American.
The point being, the environment has a far greater effect on what is learned and the quality of that learning. If most of the people around you excel at the instrument, there is a high likelihood that you will also excel. Contrary, if most of the people around you don't play, neither will you.
Back to the point of intuition of interpretation: music often requires some form of mental representation to understand. That representation often manifests itself as emotion (i.e. happy, sand, angry, beautiful pieces, etc.) It is the emotional representation that allows a musician to feel the music and perform it in a way that serves that expression.
In contrast, we've all heard performances which, while note-perfect, were lifeless; it failed to communicate the emotions and ideas within the piece. It is plausible that the performer practiced only the notes while neglecting to consider the ideas behind those notes, just like a person can read an entire page in a book and not know what it was about. The ability to play notes, like the ability to read words, can be done without understanding the meaning behind the notes or words.
Topic: About Interpretation