Faculty & friends: Erin Helyard plays Clementi

Dr. Helyard performs one of Clementi's greatest late masterpieces, his Op. 50 No. 3, subtitled "DIdone Abbandonata"; this may well be a reference to Metastasio’s libretto of that name, set by a number of eighteenth-century composers. This is the story, set here by Clementi without words, of Dido abandoned by Aeneas.

As Leon Plantinga observes "Clementi’s last sonata is of its own time, but also an affirmation of stylistic and expressive aims that he had embraced for his entire career".

Dr. Helyard is recognised as a worldwide expert on the music and career of Clementi and will be performing this work in addition to giving a paper on fortepiano pedalling at an important conference at Cornell University in August.

This concert is a foretaste of that event. Dr. Helyard performs on the ANU's superb copy of an c1818 Graf grand piano.