Chopin and Liszt, both virtuoso pianist-composers, attended the premiere of John Field’s Piano Concerto No 7 in Paris in 1832. They would have heard brilliant, fluent pianism, but little to stir the emotions. Field’s music is pleasing, sometimes touching, but doesn’t plumb any great depths. Benjamin Frith’s recordings of the earlier concertos with the Northern Sinfonia won deserved praise, and this account of No 7 was recorded a good while ago, presumably awaiting a companion in the shape of the Irish Concerto, which oddly reworks a movement from the Second Concerto, and a thoroughly cheerful solo Piano Sonata. Sophisticated accounts of good but not great music.
