The path to a career in classical music is difficult, even for those lucky enough to be born with talent, live near a school that offers music lessons, and have supportive parents. The art is extremely demanding and the competition is formidable.

But imagine how much harder it would be for a talented mixed-race boy raised in apartheid-era South Africa, when just walking into a concert hall was impossible for non-whites, and let alone play it. However, Leon Bosch succeeded in this one way or another.

Bosch, 60, is one of the world’s best-known double bass performers and is now also a conductor, promoter, publisher, educator and general player in the musical world. Visiting him at his home on the outskirts of a rural Hertfordshire town, one sees all the trappings of the successful indie musician: the expensive and rare instrument leaning against the wall, the piano next to it, the awards displayed on the walls, the serried racks of files containing thousands of concert programs, music, his own publications.

On a desk, I see a score of a symphony by Johannes Sperger. “Ah yes,” Bosch said, eager to show me. “He was a contemporary of Haydn, who is almost unknown, and I think just as good. I plan to record all of his 45 symphonies.

As Bosch speaks, the words fall so fast that sometimes I have to ask him to repeat them. Like so many gifted people who have had to struggle to escape incredibly difficult circumstances, he seems acutely aware of the time he has wasted. He drives himself hard, working seven days a week. “Does he ever stop?” I ask his wife Barbara, a retired cardiac physiologist, who he somehow found time to raise two sons with. She gives a wry smile.