John Field: The Nocturnes Before Chopin (ft. John O'Conor) | Ep. 2 The Chopin Podcast

Listen to Episode 2 – Nocturnes:

Hosted and created by Ben Laude.

This video is brought to you by the Chopin Foundation of the United States, which presents the National Chopin Competition every 5 years. The partnership was forged on the eve of the 11th National Chopin Competition, to be held in Miami in January 2025.

Tickets to the final rounds of the National Chopin Competition are now available:

The Chopin Foundation is a national non-profit organization founded by its President, Blanka A. Rosenstiel in 1977, and inspired by the first US Chopin Competition she presented in Miami in 1975.

Steinway & Sons is the National Chopin Piano Competition's Preferred Piano Partner.

Special thanks to Abby Tilton and Mark Rau for their assistance in the production of this video.

[anewman]

As an Irish person who follows your channel and your other one, I love when I see YT''er's feature his music, also I've seen and met John O' Conor many times. I'm also irishpianoman on socials!

N.B. 9:55 "Go to the Devil and Shake Yourself" is a traditional Irish jig that John Field arranged the tune as a rondo for piano in 1797. This popularized the melody and cemented its association with Field, even though he didn't actually compose the original tune.

[pawelpap]

And let’s not forget about great feature of beautiful Field’s nocturnes: a beginner can play them and not sound ridiculous.
I do not remember how I learned about Field and his nocturnes, but some time in 1980s I got myself the whole set printed edition and with some effort I learned to play some. E-flat major #1 is of course a jewel. At the same time, Chopin’s nocturnes are way beyond my abilities. So, thank you John for giving me a chance to enjoy beautiful music even with my limited technical skills.

[chiekomiami]

Happy to know about John Field, the Irish composer, who might have influenced Chopin. Thanks for the podcast!!❤

[Counterfeit_Eternity]

Thank you for this great and informative interview about such a criminally underrated composer! As a young Irish-American piano student, I learned John Field’s Nocturne in B-flat Major. While I’ve always loved this piece, I didn’t fully appreciate Field’s historical significance. I’m going to listen to John O’Conor’s recordings of these nocturnes right away!

P.S. My grandma was an O’Connor, too! 🇮🇪

[peterectasy]

Chopin added something special to nocturnes

[jean_c_santos]

John field has some fun piano sonatas. I must also mention his Piano Concdrto No.1

[PabloEnver]

This videos so valuable! thanks a lot!!

I would really like to know what you think about Czerny's nocturnes. I find them really beautiful and exciting, yet very few people plays them or talks about them.

[mhermarckarakouzian]

As a composer myself, I often play things differently than how I wrote it down originally. The reason is because a score is a set of ideas on a page. If you can articulate the same idea in a different way, then you can do it, as long as you get the idea. This is I guess the whole controversy around “what is the idea of (so and so) part of this (say) nocturne”?

[cadriver]

On improvisation, how does a musician resist the urge to do it? It’s mind boggling. It’s like breathing air.

All right. I'm havin' a Ben(ge) Laude afternoon. Gotta go back and catch up!

[adamblock]

I’m fascinated by the little psychological but practical games disciplined people will play with themselves to push them forward, as in the story here about the bowl of marbles from one side to another on the piano. Love it

[RhodesyYT]

My family has very very very distant relation to John Field I believe he was a distant cousin or uncle

[clara]

Claiming that John Field's nocturnes are a "pale imitation of Chopin's" is a bit like comparing a Mozart piano sonata with a Beethoven piano sonata and concluding that Mozart's music lacks innovation and emotional depth. One composer created amazing nuance and beauty within the harmonic conventions of their time. The other, broke away from those conventions to explore new sounds and ideas that were often highly upsetting to their contemporaries.

I'm not saying that we should undersell the creative genius of Beethoven or Chopin, but it is possible to acknowledge the brilliance of their innovation, while still appreciating the beauty and artistry in the music that inspired them.

[LogioTek]

Interesting. You learn something new every day.

[patrickkerrigan]

Briiliant but the trope of British always trying to put down the Irish isn't true -Im half Yorkshire/half Irish and have lived in Ireland for 20yrs and id argue there's an arrogance amongst certain quarters here post "Celic Tiger" -many my friends growing up had deep respect and liking for much in Irish culture and John Field would be regarded as anglo-irish by many here in Ireland...Perhaps John meant the comment was typical of a certain strata in British life of the time and now but it certainly doesn't reflect many peoples thinking in Britain. All that said -great interview

[militaryandemergencyservic]

I like Field's nocturnes. As Rimbaud said of Baudelaire's poetry - it was great but 'un peu trop artiste' - just like Chopin's nocturnes in comparison...

[purpleowl]

Ben, what happened to your amazingly hilarious pageant video? I was looking for it to cheer a friend up, but I can't find it anywhere!

[bluepearl]

Ben Chopin nocturne no 2 and Field"s that nocturn gives us almost totaly different effect thay are different in characteristic. Their 2 bars can be similar but Chopin"s nocturn has a liric and profound melody longer and more distinguishable melody but Field's melodies are pale...dont have a definit profound characters. You are teying to find an imitation by Chopin but I see that by doing so, you are loosing a bigger picture I am afraid...