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THE LYRIC FEATURE

John Field Image Name: John Field Description: John Field

Last Thoughts

‘Last Thoughts’ examines the life and work of Ireland’s greatest classical composer, John Field; a man born to a musical family in Dublin’s inner city and who died a legendary figure in his adopted home of Moscow.  Arguably the most gifted pianist the country has ever produced, Field first grabbed the world’s attention as a child prodigy, astonishing the audiences of London. He was recruited by ‘The Father of the Piano’, Muzio Clementi, to popularize the instrument across Europe.  It is fitting that the man who was posthumously dubbed ‘The Father of the Nocturne’ was, by contemporary accounts, notorious for his fondness for night life, but is his reputation for womanising and hard drinking merely the product of a national stereotype?  A combination of documentary and drama, ‘Last Thoughts’ interweaves interviews with dramatised vignettes from Field’s tumultuous life to reveal the true legacy of the man and his music.

Producer: Marc Ivan O’Gorman

A Cleverality Production for RTÉ lyric fm funded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland from the Television Licence Fee.

(First broadcast 4th November 2018)

RTÉ lyric fm, Sunday 14th April, 6pm-7pm