Johannes Brahms

His Working Life

Johannes Brahms was born in a poor neighbourhood of Hamburg on May 7th 1833. He was taught to play the violin and the cello by his father, who played double bass in the local theatres and dance halls. By the age of fourteen he was playing the piano professionally in cafes and sailors' taverns. His family undoubtedly needed the money. In 1845 he began to study composition under the guidance of Edward Marxsen, whose conservative tastes left a lasting imprint on his style. In 1853, aged twenty, he toured northern Germany with the Hungarian violinist E. Rememyi, who introduced him to Joachim, and through Joachim he came to meet Schumann and Liszt. Although Liszt recognised his talent, when he heard his piano compositions, it was through Schumann's enthusiasm, expressed in a long article in the Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik (1853), that Brahms became known in musical circles in Germany. In 1854, aged only twenty one, he was appointed Director of Court concerts and the Choral Society at the court of Prince of Detmold-Lippe. He held this post until 1859. That year, in Leipzig, he performed his Piano Concerto, No. 1 in D Minor, the first public presentation of a major Brahms work.
In September 1862 , he took up permanent residence in Vienna and became the Conductor of the Weiner Singakademie. There he met Richard Wagner. From that time he devoted his life to music. A routine became established: in the spring, he took holidays in Italy and Sicily, in the summer he took working vacations by the Swiss and Austrian lakes, or in the Black Forest, and in the winter he worked in Vienna. Brahms settled in Vienna in 1871, accepting the directorship of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde (Society of Friends of Music). In 1874 he resigned this position to devote himself to composing.
Until 1873 Brahms wrote chiefly for the piano, the instrument he knew best, and for chorus and orchestra. In that year, however, he produced the Variations on a Theme by Haydn, scored for full orchestra. This work shows Brahms' increasing mastery of large orchestral form, and was the forerunner of his major orchestral works.

Brahms wrote in every medium, except opera. The echo of the classical style in his music was at odds with the trend in contemporary music, particularly that of Richard Wagner. Although Brahms revived the classical tradition, to which no important composer since Ludwig van Beethoven had adhered, he was not wholly isolated from contemporary influence, and the fiery emotional range of the romantic spirit permeates his music. It may be said that his work is couched in classical form but tempered by Romanticism. Brahms was so overawed with the Beethoven's symphonic works that, by his own account, he feared comparison and he did not publish a symphony until he was fortyfour years of age. He wrote:"You have no idea how hard it is to compose when always you can hear the footsteps of that giant behind you". His early symphonies were likened to Beethoven by contemporary critics. Brahms musical style is described as 'Nordic' by some authorities. He was a conservative northerner and strict Lutherian, and the Scandinavian legends and folk tales in Herder's collection are known to have interested him in his youth.
Even when he achieved international fame, bitter arguments raged over his work, even in Vienna, and he became, at first unwillingly, the champion of the anti - Wagnerian school in Germany.
In 1889 Brahms was appointed a "Freeman of Hamburg"

Destruction of Working Records

Brahms was a perfectionist and a merciless self-critic It is known that he frequently reworked pieces over a period of 10 to 20 years, and, before achieving the final form, he often transcribed them for several different combinations of instruments. In October 1890 he started the process of destroying incomplete works or abandoned compositions. He burned all that he wrote before the age of 19 as well as some sketches of later masterpieces. As a result, little is known of Brahms's methods of working.

His Love Life

Brahms love life contrasted strongly with those of other musicians of that time, such as Richard Wagner for example. It was remarkable for being uneventful. He never married, and joked that his horror of marriage equalled his horror of opera. He had several women friends, particularly Clara , wife of Schumann. Some biographers contend that Brahms was deeply in love with Clara, but he did not propose to her after Schumann's death in 1856. Some allegations were made of an affair with Clara Schumann but these seem to have no foundation whatsoever, although his admiration for her was very great. He died eleven months after Clara on April 13, 1897, in Vienna.

His Orchestral Works

Brahms wrote a wide variety of music: piano pieces , chamber music, lieder, choral works and symphonies. The following is a representative set of his orchestral works, not a complete list.