a richer instrumentation, accompanies with greater fulness,
the pianoforte part had, on that account, to be made more
effective by an increase of brilliance. By these divergences
from the original, from the so perfect and beautifully
effectuating [effectuirenden] pianoforte style of Chopin,
either the unnecessary doubling of the melody already
pregnantly represented by the orchestra was avoided, or--in
keeping with the now fuller harmonic support of the
accompaniment--some figurations of the solo instrument
received a more brilliant form.

Of Tausig's labour [FOOTNOTE: "Grosses Concert in E moll. Op. 11."
Bearberet von Carl Tausig. Score, pianoforte, and orchestral parts.
Berlin: Ries and Erler.] I shall only say that his cutting-down and
patching-up of the introductory tutti, to mention only one thing, are
not well enough done to excuse the liberty taken with a great composer's
work. Moreover, your emendations cannot reach the vital fault, which
lies in the conceptions. A musician may have mastered the mechanical
trick of instrumentation, and yet his works may not be at heart
orchestral. Instrumentation ought to be more than something that at will
can be added or withheld; it ought to be the appropriate expression of
something that appertains to the thought. The fact is, Chopin could
not think for the orchestra, his thoughts took always the form of the
pianoforte language; his thinking became paralysed when he made use of
another medium of expression. Still, there have been critics who
thought differently. The Polish composer Sowinski declared without
circumlocution that Chopin "wrote admirably for the orchestra." Other
countrymen of his dwelt at greater length, and with no less enthusiasm,
on what is generally considered a weak point in the master's equipment.
A Paris correspondent of the Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik (1834) remarked
a propos of the F minor Concerto that there was much delicacy in the
instrumentation. But what do the opinions of those critics, if they
deserve the name, amount to when weighed against that of the rest of the
world, nay, even against that of Berlioz alone, who held that "in the
compositions of Chopin all the interest is concentrated in the piano
part, the orchestra of his concertos is nothing but a cold and almost
useless accompaniment"?

All this and much more may be said against Chopin's concertos, yet such
is the charm, loveliness, delicacy, elegance, and br