A visit to the thriving Chilean capital of Santiago may shed some light on Australian attitudes to music.

 

So here I am on Claudio Arrau Street, in Santiago, Chile. It’s an unremarkable suburban street, lined with the city’s ubiquitous lindens, in the bland but respectable Providencia district. I’m excited to see the name of one of my piano idols on the street signs, but I can’t see any actual connection with the great Chilean musician, the object of my pilgrimage. Was he born here? I walk the length of the street. No plaques, no museums, nada. Admittedly, I am staying a few blocks away, so it hasn’t exactly been a very long pilgrimage, but all the same… Then it occurs to me how wonderful it is to name a street after a pianist for no reason – just because he’s a great musician and a source of civic pride.

It’s just one instance of the veneration accorded to artists in South America’s most...