The Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Op. 11, is a piano concerto written by Frédéric Chopin in 1830, when he was twenty years old. It was first performed on 11 October of that year, at the Teatr Narodowy (the National Theatre) in Warsaw, Poland, with the composer as soloist, during one of his "farewell" concerts before leaving Poland. It was the first of Chopin's two piano concertos to be published, and was therefore given the designation of Piano Concerto "No. 1" at the time of publication, even though it was actually written immediately after the premiere of what was later published as Piano Concerto No. 2. The concerto is scored for solo piano, pairs of flutes, oboes, clarinets, and bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, tenor trombone, timpani and strings. A typical performance lasts about 40 minutes. Influences The piano concerto is dedicated to Friedrich Kalkbrenner, a pianist and composer whose playing Chopin admired. Another influence is apparently Johann Nepomuk Hummel. Harold C. Schonberg, in The Great Pianists, writes "...the openings of the Hummel A minor and Chopin E minor concertos are too close to be coincidental". While composing it, Chopin wrote to Tytus Woyciechowski, saying, "Here you doubtless observe my tendency to do wrong against my will. As something has involuntarily crept into my head through my eyes, I love to indulge it, even though it may be all wrong." Undoubtedly, this sight must have been the well-known soprano Konstancja Gładkowska, who was the "ideal" behind the Larghetto from Chopin's Second Piano Concerto. Premiere and critical reception The premiere, on 12 October 1830, was "a success.... a full house." There was "an audience of about 700," according to the Kurier Warszawski. The concerto was premiered with Chopin himself at the piano and Carlo Evasio Soliva conducting. The piece was followed by "thunderous applause." Seven weeks later, in Paris, following the political outbreaks in Poland, Chopin played his concerto for the first time in France at the Salle Pleyel. It was received well, once again. François-Joseph Fétis wrote in La Revue musicale the next day that "There is spirit in these melodies, there is fantasy in these passages, and everywhere there is originality." Opinions of the concerto differ. Some critics feel that the orchestral support as written is dry and uninteresting, for example the critic James Huneker, who wrote in Chopin: The Man and his Music that it was