Piano Concerto No. 2 in A-flat major

Piano Concerto No. 2 in A♭ major (H. 31), composed by 1811 and published in Leipzig in 1816. The most celebrated of Field's concertos in his own time, and historically the most influential: Chopin used it as a model for his own two piano concertos, and Clara Schumann included it in her teaching. The lyrical slow movement in particular became a template for the operatically ornamented, singing piano writing that would define the Romantic concerto. The A♭ major key — unusual in concerto literature — became a personal hallmark of Field's pastoral tone.