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Piano Classics

Field: Piano Sonatas, Variations, Rondo, Waltz

$19.99

Details

Composer
John Field
Artist
Tyler Hay
Format
CD
Label
Piano Classics
Released
Jul 17, 2026
Catalog #
PCL10359
UPC
5063758103596

About

The Irish-born composer John Field is still celebrated today as 'the father of the nocturne' for his creation of a genre which went on to inspire Chopin and generations of Romantic-era composers for the piano. Field's own talents at the piano were recognised early, when the boy was just nine years old, and further nurtured by Muzio Clementi when the Italian-born, London-resident composer and publisher took him on as a pupil. Thus although the first three of Field's sonatas date from 1801, when he was still a teenager, they are the fruit of a decade-long devotion to the art and craft of music. Unpretentious in form and melodic profile, each of these two-movement sonatas opens with a sonata movement sounding near to Beethoven in one of his milder moods, though No.2 presents a theme which strikingly anticipates one of Schubert's late impromptus. The musing character of these movements is then answered by a toe-tapping minuet, as if to banish all care. While sharing the proportions of these Op.1 pieces, Sonata No.4 is a standalone work dating from 16 years later, once Field was installed in St Petersburg as a high-living pianist to the Imperial Court. The passing of time might account for the gentler nature and richer harmony of the Fourth Sonata's second movement. These neglected pieces only came to wider attention during the 1970s, when they were first recorded, and the discovery of them will still delight any collector of early-Romantic pianism. On this new recording, Tyler Hay prefaces each Sonata with a shorter piece demonstrating the range of Field's talents and expressive palette. There is the Rondo on Del Caro's Hornpipe; a Yearning Waltz; a set of Variations on a Russian Folksong; and finally a ruminative Andante inedit in E flat which, like the best of his work, looks forward to the era of Chopin and Schumann in asserting the stature of the pianist as a poet of the keyboard. "Tyler Hay has brilliantly mastered and assimilated these often elusive scores." Gramophone, July 2018 (on the piano works of John Ogdon, for Piano Classics)

Tracklist 12 tracks

  1. 1 Rondo on the favorite Hornpipe danced by Mme. Del Caro, H. 2A 03:45
    Track
    1
    Title
    Rondo on the favorite Hornpipe danced by Mme. Del Caro, H. 2A
    Duration
    03:45
    Composer
    John Field
    Performer
    Tyler Hay
  2. 2 I. Allegro moderato 05:39
    Track
    2
    Title
    I. Allegro moderato
    Duration
    05:39
    Composer
    John Field
    Performer
    Tyler Hay
  3. 3 II. Rondo: (Allegretto) 03:49
    Track
    3
    Title
    II. Rondo: (Allegretto)
    Duration
    03:49
    Composer
    John Field
    Performer
    Tyler Hay
  4. 4 Sehnsuchts-Walzer, H. 51 01:33
    Track
    4
    Title
    Sehnsuchts-Walzer, H. 51
    Duration
    01:33
    Composer
    John Field
    Performer
    Tyler Hay
  5. 5 I. Allegro vivace 06:14
    Track
    5
    Title
    I. Allegro vivace
    Duration
    06:14
    Composer
    John Field
    Performer
    Tyler Hay
  6. 6 II. Allegro vivace 03:49
    Track
    6
    Title
    II. Allegro vivace
    Duration
    03:49
    Composer
    John Field
    Performer
    Tyler Hay
  7. 7 Chanson russe variee in D Minor, H. 41a 05:35
    Track
    7
    Title
    Chanson russe variee in D Minor, H. 41a
    Duration
    05:35
    Composer
    John Field
    Performer
    Tyler Hay
  8. 8 I. Non troppo allegro, ma con fuoco e con espressione 06:34
    Track
    8
    Title
    I. Non troppo allegro, ma con fuoco e con espressione
    Duration
    06:34
    Composer
    John Field
    Performer
    Tyler Hay
  9. 9 II. Rondo: (Allegretto scherzando) 07:29
    Track
    9
    Title
    II. Rondo: (Allegretto scherzando)
    Duration
    07:29
    Composer
    John Field
    Performer
    Tyler Hay
  10. 10 Andante inedit in E-Flat Major, H. 64 04:26
    Track
    10
    Title
    Andante inedit in E-Flat Major, H. 64
    Duration
    04:26
    Composer
    John Field
    Performer
    Tyler Hay
  11. 11 I. Moderato 05:20
    Track
    11
    Title
    I. Moderato
    Duration
    05:20
    Composer
    John Field
    Performer
    Tyler Hay
  12. 12 II. Rondo: Moderato 05:55
    Track
    12
    Title
    II. Rondo: Moderato
    Duration
    05:55
    Composer
    John Field
    Performer
    Tyler Hay