Field: Piano Concertos Nos. 2 & 7 and Piano Sonata No. 4 Benjamin Frith

• John Field (1782 - 1837): Piano Concerto No. 7 in C major, H.58:
• 1 I. Allegro moderato 17:49
• 2 II. Rondo: Allegro moderato 14:06
• Piano Concerto No. 2 in A-Flat Major, H. 31:
• 3 I. Allegro moderato (arr. H. Priegnitz as Irish Concerto) 22:40
• Piano Sonata No. 4 in B major, H.17a:
• 4 I. Moderato 05:06
• 5 II. Rondo: Moderato 06:32
• Total Runtime 01:06:13

Info for Field: Piano Concertos Nos. 2 & 7 and Piano Sonata No. 4

Dublin-born prodigy John Field enjoyed a wide reputation and great popularity. He was renowned as a soloist for his delicacy of nuance and as a composer for his cultivation of that most poetic of forms, the nocturne. His Piano Concertos were eagerly anticipated and the première of the Concerto No. 7 in Paris on Christmas Day 1832 was attended by both Chopin and Liszt. Ingeniously structured in two movements, its Rondo finale evokes the ballroom and Russia in a series of constant contrasts. The Irish Concerto is a reworking of the first movement of Field’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in A flat major.

Benjamin Frith, piano
Northern Sinfonia (Piano Concerto No. 7 in C major, H58)
David Haslam, conductor
Royal Scottish National Orchestra (Irish Concerto)
Andrew Mogrelia, conductor

Benjamin Frith
was encouraged by his teacher, Dame Fanny Waterman, to pursue a musical career after winning the Dudley National Concerto Competition aged fourteen. Since then he has been a first prizewinner in the Rubinstein Piano Masters Competition where he was also awarded the special prize for chamber music, and was awarded top prize in the Busoni International Piano Competition. With acclaim for his American and Edinburgh Festival debuts, he established himself as an international concert artist, and has given recitals and concerto performances throughout Europe, Northern America, India, Kazakhstan and the Far East. He has appeared with many of the world’s finest orchestras including the Berlin Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, Warsaw Philharmonic, Halle, the BBC orchestras, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Northern Sinfonia, and the Royal Philharmonic, and with such conductors as Zubin Mehta, Antoni Wit, Tamas Vasary, Stanisław Skrowaczewski, Matthias Bamert, Moshe Atzmon, Gianandrea Noseda and Sir Mark Elder. His diverse repertoire ranges from Scarlatti to James Macmillan and includes over fifty concertos, and much praise has been bestowed on his recordings. Frith’s enjoyment of chamber music has been fulfilled through his performances and recordings as pianist in the Gould Piano Trio and the formation of his own Piano Quartet.

Booklet for Field: Piano Concertos Nos. 2 & 7 and Piano Sonata No. 4