"not Chopin at his very best." Sometimes musicians such as Mikhail Pletnev feel a need to amend Chopin's orchestration. On the other hand, many others feel that the orchestral backing is carefully and deliberately written to fit in with the sound of the piano, and that the simplicity of arrangement is in deliberate contrast to the complexity of the harmony. It has been suggested that the orchestral writing is reminiscent of Hummel's concertos in giving support to the piano rather than providing drama. However, Robert Schumann took a rather different view when he reviewed Chopin's concerti in 1836 for the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, stating that "Chopin introduces the spirit of Beethoven into the concert hall" with these pieces. Structure The concerto comprises three movements, typical of instrumental concertos of the period: A typical performance lasts around 38 to 42 minutes. Allegro maestoso Both the first and second movements feature unusual modulations; in the opening Allegro, the exposition modulates to the parallel major, i-I, instead of the expected i-III. This tonal relation (i-III) between the second and the third theme finally occurs in the recapitulation, where an actual i-I modulation would have been expected, producing a different effect. The first movement of the E minor concerto has three themes, which are introduced by the orchestra. The piano then plays the first theme (bar 139), followed by the lyrical second theme (bar 155), accompanied by the main motif of the first theme in bass counterpoint. The third theme is in E major, introduced in the exposition by the orchestra and taken over by the piano (bar 222). The development begins in bar 385, with the piano opening with the second theme; the orchestra then develops the first theme. The recapitulation begins in bar 486 again with the orchestra playing its opening theme. The third E major theme comes back (bar 573), except this time in G major (i-III), but eventually, the coda reverts back to E minor, and the movement ends with a piano section, followed by a sudden forte E minor chord at the end. Romanze – Larghetto The Romanze, although not strictly in sonata form, has its second theme of the exposition ascribe to the classical model of modulating to the dominant (I-V), and, when it returns, it modulates to the mediant (III). Chopin wrote in the same letter to Tytus, saying, "It is not meant to create a