Johannes Brahms

Romanticism

He joined Romantic expression with Classical rigour of form: the counterpole to Liszt and Wagner.

💡 Did you know? Brahms was seen as a keeper of classical forms in the Romantic era: a counterweight to the „music of the future“ of Wagner and Liszt.

Hamburg

As a teenager he earned money playing piano in Hamburg's dockside taverns.

💡 Did you know? The young Brahms reputedly earned his living as a pianist in Hamburg dockside taverns.

Vienna

He was buried near Beethoven and Schubert in Vienna's Central Cemetery.

💡 Did you know? In Vienna, the city of Beethoven and Schubert, Brahms felt bound (and challenged) as their heir.

Robert Schumann

A deep, lifelong friendship afterwards bound Brahms to Clara Schumann.

💡 Did you know? Robert Schumann publicly hailed the 20-year-old Brahms as a coming genius: a burden Brahms long carried.

more than 20 years

Beethoven's shadow weighed heavily: '…to always hear such a giant marching behind you.'

💡 Did you know? Hans von Bülow respectfully dubbed the symphony 'Beethoven's Tenth'.

four

After the long-laboured First (1876), the other three followed within just nine years.

💡 Did you know? Brahms worked over 20 years on his first symphony: out of awe of Beethoven; it was later dubbed „Beethoven's Tenth“.

A German Requiem

Not a liturgical requiem but a consoling meditation on death: written partly under the impact of his mother's passing.

💡 Did you know? Unlike the Latin Requiem Mass, Brahms's „German Requiem“, on German biblical texts, comforts the bereaved rather than the dead.

Brahms's Lullaby

Op. 49 No. 4: written in 1868 for the birth of a Viennese friend's second child.

💡 Did you know? Brahms's lullaby „Guten Abend, gut' Nacht“ is one of the best-known cradle songs in the world.

Hungarian Dances

21 pieces, originally for piano four hands: No. 5 is the most famous.

💡 Did you know? The „Hungarian Dances“ were Brahms's biggest seller: he deliberately published them not as original works but as arrangements.

Joseph Joachim

Joachim advised him on the solo part and gave the premiere in Leipzig in 1879.

💡 Did you know? The violinist Joseph Joachim advised Brahms on his violin concerto; a critic quipped it was written „against“ rather than „for“ the violin.

the three great Bs

The phrase was coined by the conductor Hans von Bülow.

💡 Did you know? The bearded bachelor had a gruff reputation: yet secretly slipped sweets to children.

1897

Only months after Clara Schumann, whose death had shaken him deeply.

💡 Did you know? Brahms's lifelong, unfulfilled love was for Clara Schumann, the widow of his patron: he died just months after her.

Johannes Brahms

Johannes Brahms was a German Romantic composer who carried on the classical forms of Beethoven and Schubert: from symphonies to the „German Requiem“.

💡 Did you know? He worked over 20 years on his first symphony: out of awe of his model Beethoven.

Hungarian Dance No. 5

Fiery, with constant tempo shifts: the most famous of Brahms's Hungarian Dances in czardas style.

💡 Did you know? Brahms presented the tunes as arrangements: a dispute over authorship promptly followed.