Field: Piano Concertos

From a purely music-historical perspective, John Field's significance is primarily limited to his role as the creator of the piano music genre of the nocturne, a kind of "musical night piece" that many subsequent composers gratefully adopted and brought to perfection. Emotionally and aesthetically, John Field can be seen as a kind of Irish equivalent to Frédéric Chopin. Although Field, the traveling piano virtuoso who composed primarily for himself, was no genius like Chopin, the intoxication of his tonal colors and the melodic invention of his piano concertos and solo pieces is unique and is counted among the finest things 19th-century music has to offer. Robert Schumann also thought so, as he always spoke very highly of John Field and was also in personal correspondence with the Irishman. Field's piano concertos are rarely recorded gems of Romantic piano music. The NAXOS complete recording with Benjamin Frith and the Northern Sinfonia received numerous awards and recording prizes and has long been considered a reference recording. For the first time, these internationally acclaimed recordings, which have received many awards and top ratings, are now made available in a compact box at a particularly affordable price, making this probably the most attractive offer regarding John Field on the current recording market.