Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra, his most popular work, was also his last completed orchestral composition. It was commissioned as a showcase for the Boston Symphony Orchestra while the composer was in a New York hospital suffering from leukemia. This opportunity revitalized Bartok, and in only two months, the work was complete. By using the word "concerto," Bartok meant that the individual sections of the orchestra were often treated soloistically. The first movement is heavily influenced by the folk themes and rhythms of Bartok’s native Hungary, which near the end are played backwards, forwards, and upside down. In the second movement, subtitled Presentation of Couples, pairs of wind instruments and muted trumpets are each given their own theme, which later return embellished by additional instruments. A haunting elegy is followed by an intermezzo which is rudely interrupted by Bartok's thumbing his nose at Shostakovich, whom he considered overrated. That's according to Bartok's son, who said his father happened to hear a broadcast of Shostakovich's "Leningrad"e; Symphony and was inspired to parody it. The clarinet plays a march tune from the symphony and is met by jeers from the trombones. The tune is repeated in the style of a German band with a final parody by the tuba. The splendid finale with its brass fanfares and intricate fugue brings the work to an exciting conclusion.