John Field (1782-1837); IRL

John Field (1782–1837) was born in Dublin and emerged as one of the most celebrated pianists of the early nineteenth century. After early training with his father and grandfather, he studied in London with Muzio Clementi, for whom he also worked as a demonstrator of pianos. In 1802 Field accompanied Clementi on a European business tour and subsequently settled in Russia, first in St. Petersburg and later in Moscow. His elegant playing, singing tone, and apparently effortless technique won admiration throughout Europe, and he became an influential teacher as well as a fashionable performer. Although illness and alcoholism increasingly affected his later career, he continued to tour and perform before returning to Moscow, where he died in 1837.

Field is remembered above all as the composer who established the nocturne as an important genre for solo piano. His series of Nocturnes placed a lyrical, ornamented melody over gently flowing accompaniment, creating a poetic keyboard idiom that exerted a decisive influence on Chopin and later Romantic composers. Field also wrote seven piano concertos, sonatas, rondos, fantasies, and other works designed both for the concert platform and the salon. The Piano Concerto No. 2 in A-flat major was particularly admired in his lifetime. Though much of his music later disappeared from the repertory, the intimacy, cantabile writing, and atmospheric freedom of his nocturnes secured his historical importance in the development of Romantic piano music.

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Read biography at allmusic.com.