Field Piano Concertos
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: John Field
Label: Chandos
Magazine Review Date: 2/1997
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 60
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: CHAN9495
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 3 |
John Field, Composer
John Field, Composer London Mozart Players Matthias Bamert, Conductor Míceál O'Rourke, Piano |
| Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 5, '(L')incen |
John Field, Composer
John Field, Composer London Mozart Players Matthias Bamert, Conductor Míceál O'Rourke, Piano |
Author: Joan Chissell
After the liquid urbanity of his first four concertos in the keys of E flat and A flat, how the 33-year-old Field must have enjoyed confounding his public with the Orage that blows up with the suddenness of an Aegean meltemi during the opening movement of his Fifth Concerto. The insert-note suggests that the idea came from a best-selling concerto (also titled L’orage) by the eccentric German pianist-composer, Daniel Steibelt. But I’d guess that by 1815 Field had made the acquaintance of Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony too. The wind, rain, lightning and thunder are most graphically evoked by the entire company before the climactic stroke of the tam-tam which heralds the return to bluer skies. The Adagio could be interpreted as a brief hymn of thanksgiving before the naive merry-making of the finale. I’ve rarely found more to enjoy in O’Rourke’s characterization or his fingerwork (as delectably delicate in the first movement’s sunnier cascades as they are challenging in the storm), and under Matthias Bamert the London Mozart Players relish every moment of their story-telling.
It’s this work, with its many endearing surprises, that I’m sure will have the greatest appeal in this third volume in O’Rourke’s concerto series. In neither the opening nor closing movements of the Third Concerto is it easy to identify ideas that justify the length of their exposure – though in fairness I’m bound to add that more scintillating virtuosity and rhythmic vibrancy than O’Rourke gives us in the polacca-inspired finale might help to disguise itslongueurs. Like Field himself, this pianist is at his sensitive best in the slow movement – an orchestration of his early B flat Nocturne, H37, for solo piano. As before, excellent orchestral support – and all praise to those responsible for so clear and true a recording, made in the Concert Halls in Blackheath.'
It’s this work, with its many endearing surprises, that I’m sure will have the greatest appeal in this third volume in O’Rourke’s concerto series. In neither the opening nor closing movements of the Third Concerto is it easy to identify ideas that justify the length of their exposure – though in fairness I’m bound to add that more scintillating virtuosity and rhythmic vibrancy than O’Rourke gives us in the polacca-inspired finale might help to disguise its
Field Piano Concertos
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