feeling or taste."
Clementi was more generous, for he couldn't say too much of Mozart's
"singing touch and exquisite taste," and dated from this meeting a
considerable difference in his own style of play.

With the exception of occasional concert tours to Paris, Clementi
devoted all his time up to 1802 in England, busy as conductor, composer,
virtuoso, and teacher. In the latter capacity he was unrivaled, and
pupils came to him from all parts of Europe. Among these pupils were
John B. Cramer and John Field, names celebrated in music. In 1802
Clementi took the brilliant young Irishman, John Field, to St.
Petersburg on a musical tour, where both master and pupil were received
with unbounded enthusiasm, and where the latter remained in affluent
circumstances, having married a Russian lady of rank and wealth.
Field was idolized by the Russians, and they claim his compositions
as belonging to their music. He is now distinctively remembered as the
inventor of that beautiful form of musical writing, the nocturne. Spohr,
the violinist, met Clementi and Field at the Russian capital, and gives
the following amusing account in his "Autobiography": "Clementi, a man
in his best years, of an extremely lively disposition and very engaging
manners, liked much to converse with me, and often invited me after
dinner to play at billiards. In the evening I sometimes accompanied him
to his large piano-forte warehouse, where Field was often obliged
to play for hours to display instruments to the best advantage to
purchasers. I have still in recollection the figure of the pale
overgrown youth, whom I have never since seen. When Field, who had
outgrown his clothes, placed himself at the piano, stretching out his
arms over the keyboard, so that the sleeves shrank up nearly to the
elbow, his whole figure appeared awkward and stiff in the highest
degree. But, as soon as his touching instrumentation began, everything
else was forgotten, and one became all ear. Unfortunately I could not
express my emotion and thankfulness to the young man otherwise than
by the pressure of the hand, for he spoke no language but his mother
tongue. Even at that time many anecdotes of the remarkable avarice of
the rich Clementi were related, which had greatly increased in later
years when I again met him in London. It was generally reported that
Field was kept on very short allowance by his master, and was obliged to
pay for the good fortune of having his instruction b