Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms (; German: [joˈhanəs ˈbʁaːms] ; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor of the mid-Romantic period. His music features expressive counterpoint, freer dissonance, rhythmic vitality, and the use of past forms. His works include four symphonies, four concertos, a Requiem, much chamber music, and hundreds of folk-song arrangements and Lieder.
Born to a musical family in Hamburg, Brahms began composing and concertizing locally in his youth. Later, he toured Central Europe as a pianist, premiering his own works and meeting Franz Liszt in Weimar. Brahms worked with Joseph Joachim, through whom he sought Robert Schumann's approval, and Ede Reményi, gaining both Robert and Clara Schumann's support and guidance. He lived with Clara in Düsseldorf, becoming devoted to her amid Robert's voluntary commitment. After Robert's death, they remained close friends. Brahms never married, focusing on his work as a composer prone to self-criticism.
Though innovative, he was deemed conservative in the War of the Romantics, which he regretted. But his works succeeded, gaining him a growing circle of supporters, friends, and musicians. Eduard Hanslick hailed them as absolute music, and Hans von Bülow cast him as the heir to Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven, which Richard Wagner mocked. In Vienna, he led the Singakademie and Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, programming the early and often "serious" music he studied. He considered retiring from composition late in life but kept writing chamber music for prized musicians.
He and Antonín Dvořák enjoyed mutual admiration, and Max Reger and Alexander Zemlinsky blended Brahms's and Wagner's styles. So did Arnold Schoenberg, stressing Brahms's "progressive" side and valuing the structural coherence of his music, including its developing variation. It remains a staple of the concert repertoire, influencing 21st-century composers.
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