[98] The Quartet which Benedict heard was that in E-flat major, Op. 127, which had its performance on March 6, 1825, the year in which Benedict left Vienna with Barbaja. His letter to Thayer, therefore, carries us far beyond the period now under discussion. The conversation about the libretto of “Euryanthe” is said by Max Maria von Weber to have taken place at the dinner in Baden; but Benedict’s is the likelier story. [99] It was performed for the first time at a concert of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde on April 4, 1824, but it had been completed a long time before. [100] “Zweit. Beeth.,” p. 540 _et seq._ [101] Czerny wrote in the catalogue of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde concerning this song, the “Opferlied” and “Der Kuss,” “sketched at a very early period.” The note cannot be considered seriously, as there is nothing to show that he had any information on the subject. [102] See list of compositions in the chapter of this work devoted to 1809. [103] B. and H., Series XXV, Nos. 120 and 287. [104] See _ante_. [105] Nottebohm’s “Zweit. Beeth.,” p. 208. Chapter V The Symphony in D Minor--Its Technical History--Schiller’s “Ode to Joy”--An Address to Beethoven--The Concerts of 1824--Laborious and Protracted Preparations--Production of the Symphony and Mass in D--Financial Failure--Negotiations with Publishers Resumed. The Symphony in D minor, familiarly known the world over as the “Ninth,” and also as the “Choral” Symphony in England and America, was completed in February, 1824. The conclusion of the work upon it, Schindler says, had a cheering effect upon Beethoven’s spirits. He no longer grudged himself occasional recreation and was again seen strolling through the streets of Vienna, gazing into the shop-windows through eyeglasses which dangled at the end of a black ribbon, and, after a long interregnum, greeting friends and acquaintances as they passed. The history of the work is far more interesting than that of any of his compositions, with the possible exception of the Mass in D. Nottebohm has painstakingly extracted from the sketchbooks all the evidence which they afford, touching the origin and development of the work, and presented it in a chapter of his “Zweite Beethoveniana”;[106] and his conclusions have been adopted in the presentation of facts which follow. [Sidenote: GROWTH OF THE CHORAL SYMPHONY]