I’m lucky to catch Yuja Wang in her home city. The China-born superstar pianist, one of the most celebrated classical music performers today, is in demand around the world and spends only a month a year in New York. Wang’s concert dates are booked two years in advance and her summer tour — a programme of concertos by Chopin, Tchaikovsky and Nikolai Kapustin — will take her through South America, then on to Europe and around the US.

A musical prodigy who is admired by the most exacting of critics, Wang, 38, now has the celebrity status of a pop entertainer. She won her first Grammy music award last year and her albums have topped the Billboard charts for classical music. She has secured sponsorship deals with Rolex, Louis Vuitton and Estée Lauder China. Tellingly, the instrument maker Steinway touts Wang in the same sentence as the Piano Man himself, Billy Joel, in its investor documents but it is Wang who is pictured, not Joel.

She has chosen to dine at Mandarin Oriental, and walks unnoticed to our table overlooking Columbus Circle. We order coffees as we assess the menu. It’s a no to the caviar, but Wang’s eyes dart to the desserts. “Look at that — chocolate leaves,” she says.