The Evolution of the Piano

Tracing the piano’s metamorphosis through time.

About the artists

Stephanie McCallum has become renowned for a pianistic practice based on refined control of sound, nuanced artistic instincts and fearless virtuosic control. Melbourne Recital Centre’s 2022 Artist in Residence and Artistic Director for Pinchgut Opera Erin Helyard is an acclaimed and inspiring conductor, an accomplished and expressive performer of the harpsichord and fortepiano, and a lucid scholar who is passionate about promoting discourse between musicology and performance.

About the concert

Their performance in Primrose Potter Salon takes audiences on a journey, tracing the piano’s metamorphosis from a straight-strung instrument of great clarity and transparency to a cross-strung marvel of unified power and tone.

The duo presents a stunning repertoire of Beethoven’s Moonlight sonata, Mozart’s Sonata in B-flat major, Schubert’s ‘Fantasie’ in F minor for four hands, Liszt’s Consolation No. 3, Schubert’s ‘Marche Militaire’ for four hands, and Debussy’s Petite suite. An illustrated lecture contrasting the twentieth-century Steinway and the nineteenth-century Walter & Sons, and Graf fortepianos.