Elizabeth Joy Roe is best-known for her work with Greg Anderson in their extraordinary duo, aptly named the Anderson & Roe Piano Duo. She performs solo works, too, though, and this month's clip features her performing one of those historically important works that are not well-known. John Field was the originator of the piano Nocturne (the French spelling was his, though he was Irish), and his influence is truly incalculable. The most obvious and well-known descendant was Chopin's glorious works, but the influence did not end (or even begin) there. The entire pianistic style associated with Songs without Words, Impromptus, Ballades, etc. can be traced to these works; Liszt, who edited an edition of Field's Nocturnes and also specifically singled out these types of pieces, noted that, "to him we may trace the origin of pieces designed to portray subjective and profound emotion." There are some beautiful moments in the pieces—and Roe handles them beautifully on this recording—but no one will mistake them for the frankly much more interesting and developed Chopin works. No matter; they are still very much worth knowing.