Field J. Piano Sonatas (Complete, Urtext Edition)

Munich: G. Henle, 1983. — 72 p.
Urtext Edition, HN 338.
Editor: Robin Langley. Fingering by Hans-Martin Theopold.
Level of difficulty: medium (see for the levels of difficulty of the piano music published by Henle: https://www.henle.de/en/about-us/levels-of-difficulty-piano/).From the publisher: John Field, a pupil of Muzio Clementi, was in his day a celebrated pianist, credited with almost legendary skill. The Irish piano virtuoso and composer is principally known for his “Nocturnes,” a genre later adopted by Chopin; yet the four piano sonatas in this volume also deserve the highest respect. Since no autographs of them survive, all the important prints issued during Field’s lifetime have been consulted for this Henle Urtext edition. Copies with extensive handwritten annotations by the composer have served as our primary source. Editor Robin Langley’s preface provides information about the sources of the sonatas, answers questions concerning rhythmic execution, and places Field in the historical context of the piano music of his time, making this edition especially valuable.From the Preface: John Field (b. 1782, Dublin, d. 1837, Moscow), Muzio Clementi’s most famous pupil and celebrated in his own lifetime as a pianist of legendary powers, is remembered today for the nineteen Nocturnes, which point to those of Chopin, rather than the two other important divisions within his small output, the seven Concertos and four Sonatas. While the Concertos span the whole of his composing career, the Sonatas belong entirely to his earlier years and are, in a sense, replaced in his later development by the Nocturnes, the first of which appeared in print within a year of the last Sonata — 1812.
The necessity of doing sufficient justice to Field’s habit of repeatedly revising or reshaping the details of his compositions has made the establishment of a definitive text a difficult one. At least in his early years, he probably followed his master Clementi’s practice of destroying his original manuscript as soon as a work was published, and in general confined himself to pencil alterations on existing printed copies. It is not surprising, therefore, that no autograph of any of the four Sonatas is known still to exist, and the present edition, after a study of all the important printed sources appearing in Field’s lifetime, takes as its prime source copies of those editions which contain the latest and most extensive annotations in Field’s own hand, as follows: for Sonata Op. 1 no. 1 the Lischke edition (Berlin 1822), for Sonata Op. 1 no. 2 the Kiihnel edition (Leipzig 1809; in reissue copy Peters, Leipzig 1817), for Sonata Op. 1 no. 3 the Kühnel edition (Leipzig 1811), for Sonata no. 4 the Peters edition (Leipzig 1814). These copies are to be found in the British Library, London. The annotations pertain to the correction of engraver’s errors, amplification of articulation, ornamentation, dynamic and pedal indications, the intensification of harmony, the improvement of passage-work and layout, and the addition of fingering.
For Sonatas 1—3, the first edition (Clementi, London, 1801), in two copies of which (British Library and Royal College of Music) are found a number of autograph additions, is taken as the secondary source, but, for Sonata 4, the first edition (Dalmas, St Petersburg, 1812) is so inaccurately engraved that it has been thought wise to refer, in a secondary capacity also, to a copy of the Richault & Momigny edition (Paris, c. 1824, copy in the British Library), based closely on the Peters edition, but with a few additional annotations in the composer’s hand.
These indications missing in the primary, but confirmed in the secondary, sources are incorporated without notice, while the main variants are listed in the Comments at the end of this volume...
The copies containing handwritten annotations were probably used for teaching, but they are particularly valuable as sources for they also contain Field’s revisions to the text. The teaching entries are sporadically placed, occasionally lack consistency, doubtless due to their being tailored to the needs of different pupils, and are reproduced in small type. Field’s original fingering has been ignored for the same reason...Vorwort/Preface/Préface
3 Sonatas Op.1
Sonata nr. 1 in E-flat major, Op. 1 (H 8.1)
Sonata nr. 2 in A major, Op. 1 (H 8.2)
Sonata nr. 3 in C minor, Op. 1 (H 8. 3)
Sonata in B major, H 17
Bemerkungen/Comments/Remarques