I am a 'enthusiastic amateur' (one dictionary definition of 'dilettante' - isn't that nice?). I have been working hard (practicing) and have studied with an excellent teacher for three years - after 7 years as a child and a long hiatus.

I feel plateau'd out. At first, as a beginner, there was a clear path to progress - from Bone Sweet Bone to a Clementi Sonatina - you worked on progressively harder pieces and could clearly see that you were improving.

After some time and work and with some technique under your belt you get to an intermediate, or advanced intermediate level, where that clear path seems to peter out. Or it bifurcates, and bifurcates again. I know with a lot of work I could master Gondoliere from the Annees de Pelerinage, if that's what I want - a concert stage work; or, going another way, work on control of dynamics and flow and try to play a Schubert sonata like Kempff (I wish); or work on clarity and touch and try to play a Mozart sonata like Eschenbach.

So it doesn't get easier as you advance - you just find more and more things to work out - and you CAN play the Liszt once you get to a certain point - it is just going to take A LOT MORE WORK than you've been used to up until now.

There's something well beyond the notes. Maybe it's the question how? How did composer X end up writing this particular example of work? What you want to do is find its place within everything else.

Yes, you are right - the more you study this instrument the more you have to learn/master - the more you appreciate the great ones - the more you hear - it seems bottomless