 He wrote that contact with Balakirev in September 1865 encouraged him "to get accustomed to music and later to plunge into it".At Balakirev's suggestion, he wrote a trio to the scherzo of the E-flat minor symphony, which it had lacked up to that point, and reorchestrated the entire symphony.Its first performance came in December of that year under Balakirev's direction in Saint Petersburg.