Album

This box collects four discs released in the mid-'90s by pianist Miceal O'Rourke and the London Mozart Players under Matthias Bamert. Included are not only the seven piano concertos of Irish composer John Field, but also an assortment of chamber pieces for piano and strings. Several of these are arrangements of solo piano works, and even in the others the strings don't have much to do. Field is known as the originator of the nocturne, later elaborated to delicious effect by Chopin. His piano concertos, broadly speaking, are a bit like the young Chopin's, with virtuosic piano parts applied to rather simple structures. In a way it's nice to have the whole set, for their pleasures are scattered and discrete rather than thoroughgoing. Field was a crowd-pleasing pianist who took what he needed where he could find it, and in the Piano Concerto No. 5 in C major ("The Blazing Storm") he sounds like not Chopin but Beethoven. The Piano Concerto No. 1 in E flat major (as with Beethoven not the first one composed) has a central movement based on a lovely Scottish song, and there are other reminders that the music comes from the British Isles. Irish pianist O'Rourke has a more restrained style than one competitor in these works, British player Benjamin Frith, which is sometimes preferable (in the generally Mozartian early works) and sometimes not. The transparent but somewhat distant Chandos sound is unimpeded by the reissue process.

© James Manheim, All Music Guide

CD 1 of 4
John Field Composer Piano Concerto No.1 in Eb, H.27 Work Recorded 1994 20:20 Miceal O'Rourke Piano, Matthias Bamert Conductor, London Mozart Players Orchestra
1	1.Allegro	9:13			$1.49
2	2.Air écossais ('Twas within a mile of Edinboro' Town'). Adagio ma non troppo	6:07			$0.99
3	3.Finale. Allegro vivace	5:00			$0.99
John Field Composer Piano Concerto No.2 in Ab, H.31 Work Recorded 1994 35:20 Miceal O'Rourke Piano, Matthias Bamert Conductor, London Mozart Players Orchestra
4	1.Allegro moderato	19:22			$3.49
5	2.Poco adagio	4:19			$0.99
6	3.Moderato innocente	11:39			$1.99
CD 2 of 4
John Field Composer Piano Concerto No.5 in C, H.39 Work Recorded 1996 27:32 Miceal O'Rourke Piano, Matthias Bamert Conductor, London Mozart Players Orchestra
1	1.Allegro moderato	17:23			$2.99
2	2.Adagio	2:12			$0.99
3	3.Rondo. Allegro	7:57			$1.49
John Field Composer Piano Concerto No.3 in Eb, H.32 Work Recorded 1996 32:29 Miceal O'Rourke Piano, Matthias Bamert Conductor, London Mozart Players Orchestra
4	1.Allegro moderato	16:41			$2.99
5	2.Cantabile	3:45			$0.99
6	3.Rondo: Tempo di polacca	12:03			$1.99
CD 3 of 4
John Field Composer Piano Concerto No.6 in C, H.49 Work Recorded 1995 31:22 Miceal O'Rourke Piano, Matthias Bamert Conductor, London Mozart Players Orchestra
1	1.Tempo di marcia: Allegro moderato	18:58			$2.99
2	2.Larghetto	6:07			$0.99
3	3.Rondo. Moderato	6:17			$0.99
John Field Composer Piano Concerto No.4 in Eb, H.28 Work Recorded 1995 33:41 Miceal O'Rourke Piano, Matthias Bamert Conductor, London Mozart Players Orchestra
4	1.Allegro moderato	17:39			$2.99
5	2.Adagio	4:18			$0.99
6	3.Rondo. Allegretto	11:44			$1.99
CD 4 of 4
John Field Composer Piano Concerto No.7 in C-, H.58 Work Recorded 1996 29:06 Miceal O'Rourke Piano, Matthias Bamert Conductor, London Mozart Players Orchestra
1	1.Allegro maestoso. Lento	17:24			$2.99
2	2.Rondo. Allegro moderato	11:42			$1.99
John Field Composer Divertissment No.1 in E, for 2 violins, viola, bass, and piano, H.13 Work Recorded 1996 Miceal O'Rourke Piano, Matthias Bamert Conductor, London Mozart Players Orchestra
3	Divertissment No.1 in E, for 2 violins, viola, bass, and piano, H.13	5:52			$0.99
John Field Composer Rondo in Ab, H.18 Work Recorded 1996 Miceal O'Rourke Piano, Matthias Bamert Conductor, London Mozart Players Orchestra
4	Rondo in Ab, H.18	7:31			$1.49
John Field Composer Nocturne No.16, H.62 Work Recorded 1996 Miceal O'Rourke Piano, Matthias Bamert Conductor, London Mozart Players Orchestra
5	Nocturne No.16, H.62	5:18			$0.99
John Field Composer Piano Quintet in Ab, H.34 Work Recorded 1996 Miceal O'Rourke Piano, Matthias Bamert Conductor, London Mozart Players Orchestra
6	Piano Quintet in Ab, H.34	11:07			$1.99
John Field Composer Divertissment No.2 in A, for piano quintet, H.14 Work Recorded 1996 9:15 Miceal O'Rourke Piano, Matthias Bamert Conductor, London Mozart Players Orchestra
7	1.Pastorale: Andante	5:47			$0.99
8	2.Rondo: Allegro moderato	3:28			$0.99