John Field has the kind of biography you long to see turned into an HBO miniseries. Born in Dublin in 1782, the family moved to London where young John studied with Clementi and met Haydn. Traveling to Paris and Vienna, he also got to know Beethoven who spoke highly of him. In 1803 he wound up in St Petersburg where he settled down to a successful career of composition and concertizing, plus a little extra-marital rumpy pumpy on the side.

Along the way he managed to teach Tolstoy’s mother, if the author is to be believed, and invented a new form of piano miniature: the Nocturne (preceding Chopin by a good decade). The works caught on, Field even getting namechecked in War and Peace when Countess Rostova asks to hear her favourite nocturne. Although Liszt was sniffy about Field the pianist, he lavished time and energy on editing a complete edition of the Nocturnes for publication. Alas, Field’s life became increasingly eccentric with alcohol playing a major role. His career tailed off, his health deteriorated, and he died in Moscow in 1837.

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