It's been a rather muted year of Chopin commemoration here in Ireland in the 150th anniversary of the composer's death. However, the two piano concertos are on the way over the next two Fridays from the NSO, in reverse numerical order from Cristina Ortiz and Bernard d'Ascoli. And the Polish pianist Ewa Poblocka gave a Chopin and Field recital at the John Field Room last night, presented by the Polish Embassy.

Interspersing the nocturnes of John Field, "inventor of the nocturne", between the nocturnes of Chopin does no favours to the work of the Irish composer. The musical and emotional reach of the Polish master points up far too clearly the narrow range of Field's essentially melodic gift. And that gift needs an approach more imaginative than Ms Pob locka's on this occasion, during which she all too often broke up the musical line on a phrase-by-phrase basis.

Her Chopin was mostly big, public, dynamically demonstrative. The thundering left-hand octaves of the C minor Polonaise from Op. 40 were an instance where a chosen effect was taken much too far. And the prosaic directness which surfaced in the Field was also found in some of the patterned accompaniments in Chopin.

The Scherzo in B minor was carried off with a certain barnstorming brio. But the best playing of the evening was in the quieter passages of a selection of Mazurkas, where Chopin's exploratory gestures met with the sensitive, forward-looking responses the music so clearly calls for.