Fortepiano

The piano maker Nannette Streicher (1769–1833) learned her craft from her father, the renowned Johann Andreas Stein, in Augsburg. After his death, she moved to Vienna, where she first ran a successful piano factory together with her brother and later under her own name. In 1794, she married the musician Andreas Streicher (1761-1833), Schiller's friend from Stuttgart. In Vienna, the couple maintained close contact with important composers and performers, including Ludwig van Beethoven. Their instruments were very popular and shaped the sound ideal of the First Viennese School. This fortepiano has a range of six octaves (F1-f4) and four pedals: damper release, moderator, bassoon pull and shift. The sound is also shaped by a soundboard above the strings. This invention by Nannette Streicher ensured tonal balance: the lid softens the sound in the middle and low registers, but allows the weakest range, the treble, to sound freely.