Synopsis

On today’s date in 1837, the Dublin-born pianist and composer John Field breathed his last in Moscow at 54.

Born in 1782 into musical family, Field soon moved to London to study with the Italian composer Muzio Clementi and became a sought-after concert artist at a very tender age.

Haydn heard the 13-year perform in London and was impressed. At 16, Field premiered his Piano Concerto No. 1. Over the course of his life, he would meet, play for, and perform with many other famous composers of his day, including Beethoven, Czerny, Hummel, Moscheles, and Mendelssohn.

Field ended up in St. Petersburg, where he published his own compositions and apparently lived rather extravagantly. It’s said he was so well-off that he could afford to turn down a lucrative appointment to the Russian court.

In Tolstoy’s famous novel War and Peace, the Countess Rostova even asks a pianist to play her favorite Field nocturne. And it’s quite likely that while in Russia, like most of the Russian nobility of the day, Field got by speaking French, not Russian.

It’s said that on his deathbed when asked what his religion was, Field replied with a French pun: “I am not a Calvinist, but a Claveciniste (French for a harpsichord player).”

Music Played in Today's Program

John Field (1782-1837): Nocturne No. 2; John O’Conor; Telarc 80199