I dismissed the first season of The Piano, now it makes me cry on the sofa

It started with Elizabeth Riordan, 35, from Geelong. “I always wanted a family,” she said on the new season of the ABC’s The Piano. But during years of fertility treatment, “we unfortunately lost seven babies”.

Then Archie, now 5, came along. Elizabeth settled down at a public piano at Sydney Airport and played a song of her own, Finally, that was originally written out of hope to have a child and had become a celebration. “You took your time, darling of mine,” she sang. “With open arms, you’ll be held high.”

I’m pretty sure I wasn’t the only viewer choking up on the couch at home.

Then there was Peter Salmon, a 92-year-old Aboriginal stockman who is the last surviving speaker of the Indigenous language Thiinma. He met Rosie Sitorius, 38, whose job was tracking down and recording Aboriginal languages, and they became friends.

“Peter is a connection to the very origins of this country,” she said. “To be doing this work, it’s carrying the stories, the wisdom, that Peter has on for the next generation.”

Rosie sat down at the airport piano and played another personal composition, Warri Yungu Warri Paba, in that almost extinct language, about how rain brings life to Peter’s Country. He joined in with a gravelly voice that spoke of stockyards, desert dust and venerable age.

I had to wipe away a tear.

Then there was the very nervous Dominic Gertners, 17, who was born in South Korea and adopted as a baby by an Australian family. “Growing up as an adopted kid in a small town and being a person of a different ethnicity to everyone else, I just never felt like I fit in,” he said. “I’ve had anxiety for upwards of 10 years now.”

While Dominic had only ever played the piano in his bedroom, he sat down at Sydney Airport and delivered a performance of Benson’s Boone’s Beautiful Things that was drop-dead, stone-cold, five-star gorgeous, while his proud mum watched. “For a while there, it was rough,” he sang. “But lately, I’ve been doing better.”

It was too much.

No doubt emotions are closer to the surface in these unsettled times. But even if they weren’t, the power of someone playing something so meaningful to them on piano would have stirred them up.

Host Amanda Keller often seems to shed a tear during The Piano. In this episode, star musicians Andrea Lam and Guy Sebastian also seemed overwhelmed hearing the backstories of contestants.

In its second season, The Piano has to be the most emotional show on TV. A blast of warm-hearted, feelgood energy.

Based on a British format, the show recruits everyday pianists from around the country to play in a public setting – train stations, markets and shopping centres as well as the airport – with Lam and Sebastian selecting one performer from each episode for a climactic concert at Sydney’s City Recital Hall.

I dipped into the first season but didn’t stay with it. It felt like the producers were dragging things out and milking emotional storylines.

As someone who had piano lessons for a while and wish I’d continued, I tried again this season. My scepticism ebbed away when Erin Mortimer, 38, played a touching song she’d written, Lullaby For The Old Man, about her father, former champion rugby league halfback Steve Mortimer, who has dementia. “Grief pays me a visit every night,” she sang.

That powerful moment was at the end of episode one. Episode three had the emotional storylines above – and a couple more – that the producers of other TV talent shows would kill for.

But the joy of The Piano is none of these performers want to be stars. They haven’t gone on TV to have music careers or win prizes. Some play piano for their enjoyment; others are expressing difficult emotions or treating it like therapy to get through dark times. With 88 black and white keys, they’re creating the soundtracks to their lives.

With the manipulation of storylines the downside of so many reality formats, the authenticity of an Elizabeth, Peter, Dominic or Erin elevates The Piano.

Executive producer Gemma Murphy says it’s important it’s not a competition.

“It’s never about who’s ‘better’,” she says. “It’s about feeling something. We’re drawn to people who have a deep, personal connection to the piano and who let that come through in their playing.”

While skill is wonderful, “what truly matters is that moment where music and humanity meet”.

Murphy, fellow executive producer Bethan Briegel-Jones and their team had to search for pianists for the first series because no one knew what the show was.

“By series two, things shifted,” she says. “We started receiving more applications and tips from people who wanted to nominate themselves or someone they knew. That’s been lovely, but we still go out and search for those unexpected stories. Often the people we find don’t think of themselves as ‘interesting enough for TV’ – and they couldn’t be more wrong.”

It’s fascinating to consider whether other instruments could have the same power to move as the piano in a public setting. A communal saxophone could work, with musicians bringing their own mouthpiece. There might also be potential for a show based on the guitar, violin or DJ turntable.

Murphy thinks there is something special about the piano, especially a street piano, which invites passersby in to play. “It’s familiar, and often deeply personal,” she says. “That said, it’s fun to imagine how the format could evolve.

“Other instruments could absolutely bring something new and exciting to the table … although I might draw the line at the recorder. My six-year-old is currently learning, and I can safely say the world isn’t quite ready for a public recorder series just yet.”

The Piano airs at 7.30pm on Sundays on the ABC and streams on ABC iview.

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