COMPOSERS: Field
LABELS: Chandos
WORKS: Piano Works
PERFORMER: Míceál O’Rourke (piano)
CATALOGUE NO: CHAN 9315 DDD
The music on this generously-filled disc is best savoured in small doses, as Míceál O’Rourke’s gentle, fastidious playing seems to suggest. Quite a few of the pieces are shallow pianistic note-spinning, typical of the days when virtuoso pianists crowed at the triumph of their instrument over the recently demoted harpsichord. Field is most appealing when he’s in a reflective mood, as in the only nocturne included here. Forget Chopin, narrow your sights, and you’ll find lovely surprises in the opening set of variations on an old French tune, as well as some of the variations on moody melodies from Russia, where Field spent most of his life, or in the modest Andante, which may have been the last thing he wrote before he died in 1837. Adrian Jack
Field: Piano Works
The music on this generously-filled disc is best savoured in small doses, as Míceál O’Rourke’s gentle, fastidious playing seems to suggest. Quite a few of the pieces are shallow pianistic note-spinning, typical of the days when virtuoso pianists crowed at the triumph of their instrument over the recently demoted harpsichord. Field is most appealing when he’s in a reflective mood, as in the only nocturne included here.
Our rating
5
Published: January 20, 2012 at 2:31 pm