Back around, oh, 1975, I remember listening to a free-form FM station, KCFR, when they played Mendelssohn's two-piano concerto among the jazz and rock and so on. Afterward, the mellow announcer was telling us what we'd heard, noting that "Mendelssohn was seventeen years old when he wrote that."

He paused.

"Kind of makes you realize your entire life has been wasted, up to now," he added.