File name: John Field - Nocturne No. 16
File author: Gennarino
File uploaded: 07 Jan 2012
File category: Sheet Music
John Field was an Irish pianist and composer, born in 1782 into a family of musicians (father a violinist, grandfather an organist).
A pupil of his grandfather, he was subsequently entrusted to the care of Clementi, who held him in very high esteem, to the point of speaking of him as an "authentic genius promise" and who continued to teach him even after his debut as a concert artist. Field was greatly acclaimed for his immense technical value and expressive capacity; among those who greatly appreciated him, besides Clementi, we remember Glinka and Hummel. After living in London and Paris, he settled for a long period in St. Petersburg, where he was a highly appreciated piano teacher. Later returning to live in London and Paris, during a tour in Italy he fell seriously ill in Naples and from there returned to Russia, his second homeland, where a few years later, in 1837, he died.
Field is considered Clementi's greatest pupil and is recognized as the creator of the piano nocturne; however, due to a series of unfortunate, shall we say, coincidences, Field has remained practically ignored to this day and the presence of his compositions in concert halls is extremely rare.
This stands in jarring contrast to the legendary aura that surrounded him during his lifetime, also due to his great technical and executive mastery.
Furthermore, Field managed to free himself from Clementi's conceptions, renouncing the most "visible" part of the instrument's virtuoso sonorities and moving towards a path characterized by lyrical dimensions. In this regard, Liszt spoke of Field's "sleeping pianism," as he always withdrew from the call of bravura instrumentalism and the musical challenges so in vogue at that time.
Unfortunately, as mentioned before, the fortune of his nocturnes ran into the triumph of the analogous masterpieces of Chopin, which produced a rapid and inexorable exclusion from the piano repertoire. Nevertheless, to his credit remains the creation of a new genre that succeeds in bringing "nocturnal music" from the generous executive dimension of the symphonic serenade to that, much more intimate, of the solo piano, albeit characterized by a generous use of cantability.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
John O'Conor, an Irish pianist and teacher, born in 1947, was the director of the Irish Academy of Music.
O'Conor is known for two contrasting facts; the first connected to his artistic nature, the second to his human nature.
He is indeed considered by many to be among the greatest contemporary performers of piano music by Beethoven, with a particular study done together with Wilhelm Kempff and has recorded, if I am not mistaken, almost the entire repertoire. Incidentally, O'Conor frequented the splendid Positano, a pearl of my homeland, a few years ago, together with Kempff - who has a villa there - and I had the fortune to pass through those parts and to enjoy one of his delicious concerts in Ravello once.
Furthermore, O'Conor is also known to have been investigated two years ago by the Irish equivalent of our Court of Auditors for enormous unjustified expenses made in his role as (ex-) director of the Academy of Music.
Among the numerous recordings, the Piano Sonatas, Bagatelles and Piano Concertos by Beethoven, several Piano Concertos by Mozart and many works by Schubert. Finally, he is among the few who perform the works of John Field, of whom he has recorded almost all the major compositions, including the Concertos, Sonatas, and Nocturnes.
I propose to you here, John Field's Nocturne No. 16, from the collection of 18 Nocturnes curated by Franz Liszt for the Julius Schuberth editions; as the publisher says - who finally succeeded in publishing them all together - a sequence of small masterpieces scattered like autumn leaves by the author's carelessness at the time of composition and, subsequently, at the time of their publication.
The performance I propose to you is, as one might imagine from what has been read, by John O'Conor, who succeeds well in rendering the naive flow of the poet's melancholy and meditation.
Click here to download the file
