John O'Conor, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Sir Charles Mackerras - Field: Piano Concertos Nos. 2 & 3 (1994)

John Field was a pupil of Muzio Clementi and a precursor to Chopin's style of piano playing (Chopin modelled his nocturnes on those by Field). In his concertos, Field combines virtuosity with incredible lyricism. While Beethoven was writing concertos that could very well be called symphonies with piano obbligato (in fact, that is precisely what ETA Hoffman called the concertos of Beethoven and Mozart), Field was striking out in an entirely different direction. More a poet than anything else, Field's concertos sound almost improvisational, with the composer going wherever the piano seems to take him. At the same time however, Field's concertos are a little devoid of depth, with an rather uninventive left hand acompaniment for the right hand's exciting runs.In addition, the orchestra has a rather small role when compared with the piano's complete dominance of the piece. Either way, these two concertos are a joy to listen to, with wonderful performance by both John O'Connor and Mackerras and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.