Johannes Brahms

Johannes Brahms (German: [johans bams]; 7 May 1833 3 April 1897) was a German
composer and pianist. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, Brahms spent much of his
professional life in Vienna, Austria. In his lifetime, Brahms's popularity and influence were
considerable. He is sometimes grouped with Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van
Beethoven as one of the "Three Bs", a comment originally made by the nineteenth-century
conductor Hans von Blow.
Brahms composed for piano, chamber ensembles, symphony orchestra, and for voice and
chorus. A virtuoso pianist, he premiered many of his own works; he worked with some of the
leading performers of his time, including the pianist Clara Schumann and the violinist Joseph
Joachim (the three were close friends). Many of his works have become staples of the modern
concert repertoire. Brahms, an uncompromising perfectionist, destroyed some of his works and
left others unpublished.
[1]

Brahms is often considered both a traditionalist and an innovator. His music is firmly rooted in
the structures and compositional techniques of the Baroque and Classical masters. He was a
master of counterpoint, the complex and highly disciplined art for which Johann Sebastian
Bach is famous, and of development, a compositional ethos pioneered by Joseph Haydn,
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, and other composers. Brahms aimed to
honour the "purity" of these venerable "German" structures and advance them into a Romantic
idiom, in the process creating bold new approaches to harmony and melody. While many
contemporaries found his music too academic, his contribution and craftsmanship have been
admired by subsequent figures as diverse as Arnold Schoenberg and Edward Elgar. The
diligent, highly constructed nature of Brahms's works was a starting point and an inspiration
for a generation of composers.
It was the premiere of A German Requiem, his largest choral work, in Bremen, in 1868, that
confirmed Brahms's European reputation and led many to accept that he had conquered
Beethoven and the symphony. This may have given him the confidence finally to complete a
number of works that he had wrestled with over many years, such as the cantata Rinaldo, his
first string quartet, third piano quartet, and most notably his first symphony. This appeared in
1876, though it had been begun (and a version of the first movement seen by some of his
friends) in the early 1860s. The other three symphonies then followed in 1877, 1883, and 1885.
From 1881, he was able to try out his new orchestral works with the court orchestra of the Duke
of Meiningen, whose conductor was Hans von Blow. He was the soloist at the premiere of his
Piano Concerto No. 2 in 1881, in Pest.
Brahms frequently travelled, both for business (concert tours) and pleasure. From 1878
onwards, he often visited Italy in the springtime, and he usually sought out a pleasant rural
location in which to compose during the summer. He was a great walker and especially enjoyed
spending time in the open air, where he felt that he could think more clearly.

Brahms's grave in the Zentralfriedhof (Central Cemetery), Vienna.
In 1889, one Theo Wangemann, a representative of American
inventor Thomas Edison, visited the composer in Vienna and
invited him to make an experimental recording. Brahms played an
abbreviated version of his first Hungarian dance on the piano. The
recording was later issued on an LP of early piano performances
(compiled by Gregor Benko). Although the spoken introduction to
the short piece of music is quite clear, the piano playing is largely
inaudible due to heavy surface noise. Nevertheless, this remains
the earliest recording made by a major composer. Analysts and
scholars remain divided, however, as to whether the voice that
introduces the piece is that of Wangemann or of Brahms.
[36]
Several attempts have been made
to improve the quality of this historic recording; a "denoised" version was produced at Stanford
University which claims to solve the mystery.
[37]

In 1889, Brahms was named an honorary citizen of Hamburg, until 1948 the only one born in
Hamburg.