Field: Piano Concertos Nos. 5 & 6

"Sparkling performances from all concerned in a fine, well-recorded Field concerto series... Following up his two previous discs for Naxos of piano concertos by John Field, Benjamin Frith again proves an ideal soloist in attractive, decorative pieces... David Haslam and the Northern Sinfonia, the ever-understanding accompanists, are well-recorded too in the relatively small-scale acoustic." - Edward Greenfield, Gramophone, February 2002

"Apart from a dramatic storm in No. 5, these concertos are characteristically urbane and elegant, juxtaposing glittering keyboard bravura with Field's distinctive vein of lyrical poetry... Most memorable of all, perhaps, is the soulful, richly ornamented slow movement of No. 6, which Field pilfered from one of his solo nocturnes... [Benjamin Frith's] playing is exemplary: pellucid, aristocratic, scintillating, with a delicacy and grace of nuance that by all accounts marked Field's own playing... Even without its huge price advantage, this new disc can easily hold its own..." - Richard Wigmore, BBC Music Magazine, March 2002

"Being a trail-blazer can be unrewarding; you have your moment of fame, only to see someone else improve on your idea. That was the fate of John Field, who has gone down in history as 'Chopin's precursor.' Listening to this CD reminded me how unjust that is. The Fifth Concerto is an astonishing piece, including a surprising interruption of the slow movement with fast music - which you think is the finale but turns out to be a red herring. Both the soloist (Benjamin Frith) and the orchestra are superb, pointing up the gentle pathos of the music without exaggerating it." - Ivan Hewett, The Times (London), February 16, 2002