The works of Johannes Brahms are among the most consistent of any composer.
His style matured early and then changed little, and his meticulous, self-
critical approach never allowed publication of any work less than excellent.
Born in Hamburg, he learned the piano from the age of six, first with his father (a double-bass player), then with Otto Cossel and Eduard Marxsen, who also taught him the composition and gave an all-round musical training. In his teens Brahms began to compose and performed regularly, earning money (at the cost of his innocence) in a sailors' bar. In 1853 he was invited to tour with the violinist Eduard Reményi. In Hannover he was introduced to the violin virtuoso Joseph Joachim, who was to become a significant figure in Brahms's life, Joachim arranged for him to meet Liszt in Weimar, where Brahms embarrassed himself by falling asleep during the great pianist's performance of his Piano Sonata in B minor. Brahms quickly won a deserved reputation for the frank, even rude manner in which he expressed his opinions. He was never very taken with the 'New German School' and later supported the critic Eduard Hanslick in his campaign against Liszt, Wagner and Bruckner.
On a visit to Robert and Clara Schumann in Düsseldorf, he met with great enthusiasm for his piano music. Shortly afterwards, Schumann broke a ten-year critical silence to announce in the 'New Musical Journal' in 1853 that Germany's musical 'Messiah' had arrived: at the age of 20, Brahms became instantly famous. After Schumann's suicide attempt in 1854 and committal to an asylum, Brahms stayed with Clara Schumann. Although he was in love with her, they did not marry after Schumann's death two years later, but became lifelong friends.
During the next few years Brahms often stayed with Joachim, who encouraged
his composing: he also traveled frequently with Clara. He had a number of love
affairs, but never married.
He was employed as a choral conductor in Hamburg and Vienna, and settled in the
Austrian capital in 1869, the year after the triumphant premiere at Bremen of
his famous choral work, Ein Deutsches Requiem. Vienna remained his home
for the rest of his life. Early fame had meant early publications; the proceeds
spared him from taking court appointments or undertaking too many hectic concert
tours.
The great things that had been forecast for him by Schumann were turning into
something of a burden, however, and Brahms deliberated for many years over his
first orchestral works. He began work on a symphony as early as 1854. Like many
other composers, Brahms was awed by the symphonic masterpieces of Beethoven and
uncertain about producing examples of his own. After five years it emerged in a
revised form as the First Piano Concerto. Eventually he completed his First
Symphony in 1876, 14 years after it was begun. With its broad, abstract
Classical form, its emotional progression from tragedy to triumph, and the
nobility of its hymn-like finale theme, it was quickly dubbed Beethoven's
Tenth.
Brahms had by now mastered orchestral writing: the Violin Concerto and Second
Piano Concerto in addition to three more outstanding symphonies followed
within nine years. Brahms's last orchestral work, the Double Concerto of
1887 for violin and cello, was written for Joseph Joachim and marked a
reconciliation with him following a seven-year rift, after Brahms had taken the
side of Joachim's wife Amalie in their divorce proceedings.
From 1880 Brahms often visited the resort of Bad Ischl, accompanied on two
occasions by Johann Strauss II, whose Blue Danube waltz he declared he wished he
had composed. He also had a long association with the Meiningen Court Orchestra,
who toured with many of his works. In 1891 their clarinetist Richard Mühlfield
so impressed Brahms that he wrote four works for the instrument. One of these
was the Clarinet Quintet (for clarinet and string quartet), which ranks
among his finest works.
Brahms created Classical musical structures in a Romantic age. His writing is
notable for its rich textures resulting from a dense fabric of interwoven
melodies. It gives his music an emotional depth quite different from the
passionate intensity of Tchaikovsky, for example; in the Clarinet Quintet he
beautifully conveys a sense of autumnal melancholy.
Clara Schumann died in 1896 and Brahms undertook a 40-hour journey to attend her funeral, which caused his own health, by now precarious, to worsen dramatically. After a short stay at the spa at Karlsbad he struggled back to Vienna to attend Buckner's funeral, and the following year Brahms himself died, succumbing to cancer of the liver.
Piano Concertos 1 & 2
Violin Concerto
Ein Deutsches Requiem
Double Concerto for violin and cello
String Sextets No.1 in B flat; No.2 in G
Piano Quartets No1. in G minor, No.2 in A; No.3 in C minor
Piano Quintet
Clarinett Quintet
Violin Sonatas Nos.1-3
Song of Destiny
