Piano, grand piano, pianoforte, pianino... It's quite confusing! But “piano” usually means the keyboard instrument that plays a major role in our concerts.
Separate works have been and continue to be written for each instrument, and some of them are particularly popular. In the case of the piano, for example, this is the Third Piano Concerto by the Russian Sergei Prokofiev, which Anna Vinnitskaya plays in our example.
The piano was originally a plucked instrument! You can still see this today in the harpsichord. The forerunner of the piano looks very similar, but the strings are plucked by a special mechanism. The piano, however, is a keyboard instrument and originated in its present form in the 17th/18th centuries. Its strings are struck by small hammers, causing them to vibrate, which in turn are connected to the keys.
The piano was particularly popular in the 19th century, when it was often heard in concerts, but it was also "good form" to have a piano at home and to learn to play it. With the advent of records, later CDs, and today's completely different technology, learning to play the piano has declined, but it still plays an important role in the concert hall, often as a solo instrument, but sometimes as part of a large orchestra.