John Field (1782-1837)
Complete Nocturnes
Alice Sara Ott (piano)
rec. 2024, Meistersaal, Emil Berliner Studios, Berlin
Deutsche Grammophon 4866238 [76]

Alice Sara Ott eloquently describes her first encounter with the Nocturnes of John Field while dealing with the lows of the recent pandemic. Curiosity was piqued from the first notes and she listened repeatedly, wondering about this composer whose nocturnes ranged in style and emotion from the charm and simplicity of a Mozart andante taking in Beethoven and allowing the listener to glimpse the future style of Chopin. I too am approaching these fresh having really only heard the fifth nocturne with any kind of familiarity though I realise that I have two more nocturnes in my collection played by the pianist who first recorded a huge swathe of Field’s music, Frank Merrick.

Dublin born John Field was first taught by his father and Italian composer Thommaso Giordani but it was Muzio Clementi who really developed his talent. His playing, if not his personality, impressed contemporaries, this rough looking lad who changed as soon as his hands touched the keys. It was not long before Clementi took his protege to Russia to promote his pianos. Unlike Clementi, Field took to Russia and remained there for the rest of his life, pursuing a successful career with just a brief return to Europe. Ott writes that he realised that the musical world there had moved on and virtuosi like Liszt, Chopin and others had eclipsed him so he returned to Russia. Harold C. Schonberg in his wonderful book The Great Pianists suggests otherwise; he was unimpressed with the virtuosi of the time even describing Chopin as a sickroom talent. Schonberg paints a vivid picture of Field and if just part of what he writes is true he must have been a thoroughly unpleasant individual; returning to England he made himself obnoxious by talking too much, bragging too much, drinking too much. The latter was probably as much a factor in his declining health as was the illness that finally lead to his death.

There could be no greater contrast between the man and his music. These nocturnes are happy creations one and all and very nearly as wide ranging in mood and style as Chopin’s considerably more famous nocturnes. Liszt was positively flowery in the long preface to his edition; he (Field) invented new groups in an uninterrupted succession, which he twined round his melodies like garlands, adorning them anew with that shower of fragrant blossoms and goes on to described their  tremulous languishment – there is lots, lots more in a similar vein. In the simplest terms they feature beautiful melodies over a flowing left hand accompaniment and for all their variety Field was content to present these bejewelled treasures without dark drama which is possibly why the critic Ludwig Rellstab compared Chopin’s first nocturnes so poorly to Field’s; his comparison ends by saying if one holds Field’s charming romances before a distorting, concave mirror, so that every delicate impression becomes a coarse one, one gets Chopin’s work – a sentiment that is hard to understand nowadays.

We are fortunate to have several strong versions of the complete nocturnes including Benjamin Frith on Naxos, Míċeál O’Rourke on Chandos, Elisabeth Joy Roe on Decca and John O’Conor on Telarc any of which I can happily enjoy though Ott has for the most part gone to the top of the list for me. She uses the order found in Liszt’s edition unlike some of the other recordings who use the order from Cecil Hopkinson’s 1961 catalogue; DG do not provide Hopkinson numbers. Recorded in gorgeous sound her touch is seductive and she generally adopts slightly faster tempos that offer well paced accompaniments and a clear sense of line and phrase. Her fingerwork in all the decoration, and there’s a lot of that, reminds me of Glinka’s description of Field’s own playing, his fingers like great drops of rain, poured over the keys as pearls on velvet and I find her gossamer touch here to be some of the most effective I have heard in recent years. In this respect the sixth nocturne, lullaby, and the fourteenth in C major are highlights of an already winning collection. Some might baulk at Ott’s occasional interpretative choices, the little pauses before the arpeggios in bars four and eight of the A major pastorale or the freedom of tempo with which she plays le midi but for every one of these minor points there are a myriad felicitous touches. I would award this CD the highest of accolades were it not for one point. In the rather contrasting and frankly-not-really-a nocturne nocturne en forme de rondo subtitled noontide -about as far as one can get from nocturnal – the coda features twelve left hand Es marked cloche accompanying the winding down of the piece, representing the midday chimes. Ott or DG or both have chosen to add the chimes of a real grandfather clock to the piano note which may add realism but is just this side of twee. It is rather surprising but is thankfully only for a few short bars and as there is so much to enjoy otherwise I would say this is an extremely welcome and highly recommended version of these beautiful pieces.

Rob Challinor

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Contents
Nocturne No.1 in E flat major (1812)
Nocturne No.2 in C Minor (1812)
Nocturne No.3 in A flat major (1812)
Nocturne No.4 in A major (1817)
Nocturne No.5 in B flat major (1817)
Nocturne No.6 in F major Berceuse (1817)
Nocturne No.7 in A major
Nocturne No.8 in E flat major
Nocturne No.9 in E minor (1821)
Nocturne No.10 in E major Nocturne pastorale
Nocturne No.11 in E flat major
Nocturne No.12 in E major En forme de rondo
Nocturne No.13 in C major Rêverie-Nocturne (1821)
Nocturne No.14 in G major (1822)
Nocturne No.15 in D minor Song without words (1834)
Nocturne No.16 in C major (1835)
Nocturne No.17 in C major (1835)
Nocturne No.18 in F major (1836)