Complete Nocturnes

ROBERTE MAMOU

This album is a long-awaited reissue of the complete Nocturnes by the Irish composer John Field, who was the first to name these short pieces eminently pianistic in essence Nocturnes, thirty years before Chopin. Field seeks foremost to put to best use the piano’s new technical improvements: a more sustained legato, greater variety in keyboard touch, a subtler range of dynamics and more efficient sustaining pedal. Field can thus be considered as the initiator of a special piano technique which was to have its heirs, in parallel to the "orchestral piano" playing. Beyond the outward varied form of inspiration, this very specific style imbues the Nocturnes with true unity. But their interest does not stop at that, since they are not just forerunners of Romanticism. They stand already as one of its most harmonious offerings.

Price: $28.98