Gustav Mahler's orchestration of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9

[1][2][3][4][5] By the mid-nineteenth century questions regarding the orchestration of Beethoven's work attracted the attention of major composers.

Wagner's alterations were based on two premises: Beethoven's deafness and the technical development and capabilities of newer instruments.

Grove was critical of Wagner's modifications: "Make the same proposition in regard to a picture or poem and its inadmissibility is at once obvious to anyone.

"[2] This is similar to the French composer Charles Gounod's argument that "it is better to leave a great master his imperfections, if he has any, than to impose on him our own.

[10] Mahler's response to critics stressed that he had proceeded carefully, noted that he was not the first conductor to make changes to the Ninth, and stated that he had a "veneration" for Beethoven.