A great German musician

Are you familiar with the three great Bs of German music? The three Bs are Beethoven, Brahms and Bach. You may have read the article we carried on Ludwig van Beethoven. Today, we feature the second B, Johannes Brahms.

Brahms was a composer of the Romantic period. He was born on May 7, 1833 in Hamburg, Germany. His father, Johann Jakob Brahms, was a musician, while his mother, Johanna Henrika Christiane Nissen, was a seamstress.

Brahms received his first musical training from his father and started studying piano from the age of seven with

 Otto Friedrich Willibald Cossel. He showed talent from an early age and started earning an income by playing the piano in restaurants and theatres, as well as by teaching.

For a brief period, Brahms also learnt the cello, before continuing his piano lessons with several reputed teachers. Although the young boy gave many public concerts in Hamburg, he didn't become well known as a pianist until a concert tour he made at the age of 19. He conducted choirs from his early teens, and became a proficient choral and orchestral conductor.

Brahms began to compose quite early in life, but destroyed most copies of these works; he was known as a perfectionist and until he was completely satisfied with a composition, he is said to have kept destroying the copies he produced.

His compositions received public acclaim after he accompanied Hungarian violinist Eduard Remenyi on a concert tour in April and May of 1853. He met many reputed musicians during this tour.

Around this time, Brahms was introduced to a giant in the music scene, Robert Schumann, and was welcomed into his family. Schumann, impressed with his talent, described the 20-year-old as "destined to give ideal expression to the times".

After Schumann's death in 1856, Brahms divided his time between Hamburg, where he formed and conducted a ladies' choir, and Detmold, where he was court music teacher and conductor.

He first visited Vienna, which would eventually become his home, in 1862, and in 1863, was appointed conductor of the Vienna Singakademie. From this point on, he started basing himself increasingly in Vienna and finally made it his home.

The last formal position he held was as director of the concerts of the Vienna Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, from 1872 to 1875. He refused an honorary doctorate of music from the University of Cambridge in 1877, but accepted one from the University of Breslau in 1879.

Although he was steadily composing music during the 1850s and 60s, it received mixed responses with some labelling his works as old-fashioned.

In 1868, his largest choral work - Ein deutsches Requiem - premiered in Bremen, cementing Brahms' European reputation and leading many to accept that he had fulfilled Schumann's prophecy. This also encouraged the man to complete a number of works that he had been working on over many years.

Brahms enjoyed travelling, and travelled often both for business (concert tours) and pleasure. He also enjoyed walking and spending time in the open air, where he felt that he could think more clearly.

During these walks, he distributed candy among the children that he came across. But, it's said, he wasn't very kind to adults and even distanced other people. However, those who remained his friends were loyal to him, and he treated them with equal loyalty and generosity.

In 1889, a representative of American inventor Thomas Edison visited Brahms in Vienna and invited him to make an experimental recording. He played a shorter version of his first Hungarian dance on the piano.

Although not of top quality, this remains the earliest recording made by a major composer. Although he decided to give up composing at the age of 57, in 1890, he failed to stick to this decision, and continued producing many acknowledged masterpieces right upto the years before his death.

Some of the composers that had influenced Brahms were Beethoven, Schumann, Mozart, Haydn, Gabrieli, Hasse, Schutz, Bach, Rameau and Francois Couperin. Folk music and the Bible are also said to have influenced his work.

Although financially quite successful, Brahms preferred a modest lifestyle. He never married and gave away much of his money to relatives, while supporting a number of young musicians without taking the credit for it. Brahms died of cancer on April 3, 1897 and was buried in the Zentralfriedhof in Vienna.

Source Wikipedia

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Some of his works

* A number of major works for orchestra, including two serenades, four symphonies, two piano concertos, a violin concerto, a double concerto for violin and cello, and a pair of orchestral overtures - the Academic Festival Overture and the Tragic Overture.

* The choral work Ein deutsches Requiem ("A German Requiem")

* Works in variation form include the Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel and the Paganini Variations, both for solo piano, and the Variations on a Theme by Joseph Haydn in versions for two pianos and for orchestra and the final movement of the Fourth Symphony (Op. 98).

* Chamber works include three string quartets, two string quintets and two string sextets, as well as a clarinet quintet, a clarinet trio, a horn trio, a piano quintet, three piano quartets and three piano trios.

* Several instrumental sonatas with piano, including three for violin, two for cello and two for clarinet.

* About 200 songs; he's considered among the greatest of Lieder composers. His chorale preludes for organ have become an important part of the organist's repertoire.

* Arrangements for popular dances such as Hungarian Dances, the Waltzes Op. 39 for piano duet, the Liebeslieder Waltzes for vocal quartet and piano, and songs, notably the Wiegenlied, Op. 49 No. 4 (Brahms' Lullaby).