European culture in the early 19th century was groping in every direction for new ways of expressing new ideas. The artist as Individual, the artist as Hero, the artist as Artist, the Hero as Artist — endless changes were being rung on the new Romantic ideals of individuality, of sensibililé, of rebellion against oligarchy or materialism or philistinism or classical form. Form was to the artist what wealth or privilege were to the revolutionist — a flagrant and shameless suppression of the free and solitary soul. For many artists, the ideal was pure expression without cerebration, content without form — and since the Romantic era was also spawning a new race of individualistic, self-vaunting instrumental virtuosi it is not surprising that the flamboyant spirit of the piano soloist and the anti-formalistic spirit of the Romantic composer should meet and fuse in a blaze of light. It is curious to note that while the virtuosi of the 18th century, from Handel to Beethoven, were brilliant improvisers, we hear little of the improvisations of a Liszt or a Chopin. The Romantic virtuoso had no need to improvise : his flights of fancy were written down and published as Fantasia, Impromptu, Nocturne, Moment musical, Lied ohne Worte. The Romantic virtuosi were fine improvisers, but in a different sense from their forebears. An early 19th-century piano concert was a showy, theatrical affair, the exquisite long-fingered artiste drawing some of the adulation of a matinée idol of a later era, and on these occasions it was a point of pride to give the written text new and exciting twists. Liszt described how Field "bewitched" his hearers by the spontaneity of his playing, adding that he never performed a piece quite the same way twice. And, of course, Chopin later became legendary for the languorous charm of his rubato.
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It was in this perfervid artistic atmosphere that Field, the polyglot Dubliner-Londoner-Petersbourgeois-Muscovite, "invented" one of the most Romantic of pianistic "forms", the Nocturne. But in "inventing" the Nocturne, Field did little more than give a name to one type of quasi-improvisatory piano piece — a type defined only by its approximate length and its prevailing mood, which was reflective but not withdrawn, tranquil but still virtuosic. Liszt's vivid description of Field at the piano can almost serve as a definition of the Nocturne style : "His playing was always clear and flowing. His hands glided over the keys, and the notes awoke under his fingers like a long chain of translucent pearls... But his playing — supremely tasteful and accurate — nonetheless bore a faint imprint of morbidity, of neurasthenia..." It was this mood, rather than any specific formal ideas, that the young Chopin absorbed from hearing Field...
Eric Van Tassel (from the original liner Notes)
Noël Lee
Plays
John Field
(1782-1837)
Tracks
Nocturnes
1 N° 2 in C minor 2:26
2 N° 3 in A-Flat major 3:30
3 N° 6 in F major 4:02
4 N° 13 in D minor 2:06
5 N° 5 in B-Flat major 2:12
6 N° 9 in E-Flat major 3:02
7 N° 15 in C major 3:38
8 N° 12 in G major 1:32
9 N° 10 in E minor 2:24
10 N° 17 in E major 9:47
11 N° 4 in A major 4:54
12 N° 18 in E major (Midi) 3:57
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Noël Lee - p
Recorded ca 1968