Field: Piano Concertos Nos. 1-7; Nocturnes Nos. 1-18; Sonatas Nos. 1-4; Rondo on Del Caro’s Hornpipe; Yearning Waltz; Variations on a Russian Folksong; Andante inédit. Paolo Restani, piano, with Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice conducted by Marco Guidarini; Tyler Hay, piano. Brilliant Classics. $43.99 (7 CDs).
John Field (1782-1837) was a man of multiple misfortunes, many of them self-inflicted. Musically, he had the misfortune to be born either too early or too late, depending on how one regards his style, which was more-or-less “proto-Romantic” and has led to his music sharing much the same neglect as that of Hummel (whom Field knew and with whom he performed in 1822). Field also had the misfortune to be highly influential, most famously through his development (sometimes wrongly considered the origination) of the piano nocturne, which Chopin raised to a level that quickly eclipsed Field’s. Chopin and other successors who drew on Field’s innovations tended to develop them to greater heights and thus to leave Field himself in their shadow.
Field also seems not to have been a particularly engaging or attractive human being, biographically speaking. Indolent, sloppy with record-keeping and inclined to avoid fulfilling agreements if he was not in the mood, he had the added misfortune of turning his back on the rising Germanic influence in music (especially disdaining most of Beethoven) and himself being a composer best described as Russo-Gaelic – an awkward combination of Field’s country of origin, Ireland, with the place in which he had his greatest successes that, for a time, made him quite well-to-do (a situation that did not last).
Field got to Russia through the not-so-good offices of Muzio Clementi (1752-1832), another musically transitional figure, whose main interest was not composition but the manufacture and sale of pianos – with Field being his student and later, for a time, through his performances, an effective salesman of the instruments. The notoriously miserly Clementi, considered a skinflint both in his own time and subsequently, almost abandoned Field before the two travelers reached Russia, but relented enough to get Field set up there, albeit in something close to abject poverty. The men nevertheless retained a rather uneasy alliance over time, with Field dedicating his Piano Concerto No. 3 to Clementi and eventually serving as a pallbearer at Clementi’s funeral.
The extent to which Field’s music deserves to be rescued from obscurity has been debatable for years, and it is a real pleasure for listeners to have a chance to judge it for themselves through a very fine Brilliant Classics release of all the Field piano concertos and nocturnes, plus some solo-piano miscellany. The concertos are handled very ably indeed by Paolo Restani and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice under Marco Guidarini, in performances dating to the 2007-2008 time frame. It should be noted at the outset that these are not historically informed readings: in particular, the use of a Steinway Model D, the model most favored by so many contemporary pianists, is a poor choice for Field’s concertos – a six-octave Clementi instrument would serve the music much better in terms of the balance between soloist and ensemble, which is distinctly overweighted toward the piano in these performances. The actual playing here, though, is very effective even if it is not idiomatic. Field’s concertos manage to sound post-Mozartean without being fully in the Romantic (much less Beethovenian) idiom, and they are all very noticeably front-weighted. In Nos. 1 and 3 (the second to be written), the first movement is almost as long as the second and third put together; in Nos. 2 and 4, the first movement is longer than the other two together; and in Nos. 5 and 6, the first movement is almost twice as long as the others combined. (No. 7 is in only two movements; and No. 3, originally also written in two, has for many years – including in this recording – had a version of Field’s Nocturne No. 2 interpolated as a slow movement.) There is more a sense of musical extension than of genuine grandeur in the very long, frequently discursive opening movements, portions of which tend to meander here and there; but the piano writing is very effective throughout, and the concertos have decidedly different characters. Most are comparatively upbeat except for well-planned but generally short lyrical sections and brief slow movements. Only No. 7 is in a minor key (C minor). Nos. 1, 3 and 4 are in E-flat; Nos. 5 and 6 are in C; and No. 2 (written third) is in A-flat. The oddest is No. 5, written by Field as a can-you-top-this response to a very popular 1799 concerto by Daniel Gottlieb Steibelt (1765-1823), with whom Field had a rather friendly rivalry. Steibelt’s concerto, his third, featured a movement called L’orage (“The Storm”), whose tone-painting Field decided to outdo: his No. 5, L’Incendie par l’Orage (“The Fire Caused by the Storm”) goes well beyond Steibelt. All three movements of Field’s concerto are in C; the first features thunder (possibly influenced by Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6) and then highly melodramatic sound effects that climax with a crash on the tam-tam – an instrument never before used in a piano concerto and not to reappear until the time of Ravel and Gershwin.
Field’s concertos are best heard one at a time rather than in a group: Restani’s generally light touch helps make up for the over-sonorous piano, but the works’ effect comes through better when each is listened to on its own. And there are some occasions, such as the piano’s first entry in No. 3, when Restani cannot resist the impulse to make full use of the Steinway’s power – to the music’s detriment. This release does provide a pleasant way to immerse oneself in Field without feeling the need to listen to concerto after concerto: indulge in between the piano-and-orchestra works in some listening to ones for piano solo. These are played by Tyler Hay and were recorded more recently: the Nocturnes in 2023 and the remaining solo-piano works in 2025. Heard on their own and without invidious comparisons with Chopin’s, Field’s Nocturnes are very enjoyable character pieces, a bit beyond “salon music” and laced with delicacy, expressive lyricism and captivating charm. Ranging in length from two minutes to 11, they are harmonically refined, thoroughly expressive, and captivating in their individual focuses on drifting dreams and mild melancholy. Hay plays them without fussiness and without overdoing their mostly surface-level (if sincere) emotive communication, producing a sense of soothing sound that makes it easy to see why these works so attracted not only Chopin but also Liszt and many others.
The seventh CD in this collection is best regarded as miscellany or an appendix. Field’s four piano sonatas, three written for his then-teacher Clementi and the fourth a decade later but with essentially the same approach, are two-movement works that come across as being études or sonatinas rather than larger, full-scale sonatas. Four small musical palate cleansers are scattered among the sonatas here. Rondo on Del Caro’s Hornpipe is an unusual-for-Field engagement with Irish music and a suitable encore for any Field recital. Variations on a Russian Folksong brings in the other side of Field’s musical personality, transforming a melancholic tune into something genuinely poetic. And the Yearning Waltz and Andante inédit are unashamed salon pieces: pleasant, short (the waltz lasts barely 90 seconds), enjoyable miniatures of no great consequence. As for whether or not Field himself was or was not a consequential composer: this very extensive collation of his major works, and some minor ones, provides ample opportunity for listeners to engage with his musical worldview and make up their own minds about an apt place for him in the compositional firmament.
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