Complete Piano Concertos

John Field, inventor of the Nocturne. That is all most people know about this remarkable and influential Irish composer. Born in 1782 in Dublin, he became one of the most celebrated pianist-composers of the early-Romantic age. Admired by his contemporaries Hummel, Moscheles and Kalkbrenner, he also drew praise from Chopin (upon whose music he exerted a huge influence) and Schumann. His seven concertos contain some of his most strikingly original and beautiful ideas. Notable is the central slow nocturne section in the first movement of No.7 (praised by Schumann), and the storm sequence in No.5, complete with gong, bell, tam tam, trombone and a second piano. The Second Concerto remained in the repertoire of the great virtuosi Pachmann, Mark Hambourg, Nikolai Rubinstein and von Bulow. Chopin and Clara Schumann taught it. It remains one of the most influential and effective early-Romantic piano concertos, and the blueprint for Chopin's two concertos.