[68] The Ninth Symphony was given for the first time in Germany at Frankfurt on April 1st, 1825; in London on March 25th, 1825; in Paris at the Conservatoire on March 27th, 1831. Mendelssohn, then aged seventeen, gave a performance of it on the piano at the Jaegerhalle in Berlin on November 14th, 1826. Wagner, a student at Leipzig, re-copied it entirely by hand; and in a letter, dated October 6th, 1830, to the publisher, Schott, offered him a reduction of the Symphony for pianoforte duet. One can say that the Ninth Symphony decided Wagner's career. [69] "Apollo and his Muses would not wish to deliver me up to death yet, for I still owe them so much. Before I go to the Champs-Elysées I must leave behind me what the spirit inspires and tells me to finish. It seems to me that I have scarcely written anything." (To the brothers Schott, Sept. 17th, 1829.) [70] Beethoven wrote to Moscheles on March 18th, 1827: "The complete sketch of a Symphony is in my desk with a new overture." This sketch has never been found. One only reads in his notes: "Adagio cantique." Religious song for a symphony in the old modes (_Herr Gott dich loben wir.--Alleluja_), may be in an independent style, may be as introduction to a fugue. This Symphony might be characterised by the entrance of voices, perhaps in the _finale_, perhaps in the _adagio_. The violins in the orchestra, etc., increased ten times for the last movements. The voices to enter one by one; or to repeat the _adagio_ somehow in the last movements. For words for the _adagio_, a Greek myth or an ecclesiastical canticle, in the _allegro_, Bacchus' Feast (1818). As has been seen the choral conclusion was intended to be reserved for a _Tenth Symphony_ and not for the _Ninth Symphony_. Later he said that he wished to accomplish in his _Tenth Symphony_ "the reconciliation of the modern world with the ancient, which Goethe had attempted in his _Second Faust_." [71] The subject is the legend of a horseman who is loved and captured by a fairy, and who suffers from nostalgia and lack of liberty. There are analogies between this poem and that of _Tannhäuser_. Beethoven worked at it between 1823 and 1826. (See A. Ehrhard _Franz Grillparzer_, 1900). [72] Since 1808 Beethoven had made plans for writing the music to _Faust_. (The first part of _Faust_ appeared under the title of _Tragedy_ in the autumn of 1807). It was then his dearest plan. [73] "The South of France! It is there, there!" (from a notebook in the Berlin Library). "To go away from here. Only on this sole condition will you be able to rise again to the high level of your art.... A Symphony, then to go away, away, away. The summer to work during a voyage.... Then to travel in Italy and Sicily with some other artist."