'The piano is most subtly interwoven with the orchestra - one cannot think of one without the other. [...] In this Piano Concerto the pianist is not only soloist but orchestral musician as well', Clara Schumann wrote after the world premiere. As she and even all following pianists had to learn, the unusually tight integration of the piano into the orchestra put increased demands on the pianist and the conductor - since the contrast principle of classical solo concertos here makes way for a fusion principle. Despite certain initial difficulties of understanding, the Piano Concerto became one of the most popular pieces of Romantic music.