Brahms, Johannes 1833-97
German composer

Johannes Brahms was born in Hamburg, the son of a poor orchestral musician. He showed early talent as a pianist, and as a young boy was compelled by family poverty to earn his living playing in the dockside inns of Hamburg. Although his reputation spread rapidly, it was not until 1853 that he was able to concentrate on composition. This was after he had met the flamboyant Hungarian refugee violinist Ede Rem�nyi (1828-98), with whom he went on tour, and from whom he probably absorbed much of the spirit which went into the Hungarian Dances (1868-80) and Zigeunerlieder (1888). During the tour he met the violinist Joseph Joachim, who became a lifelong friend and supporter, as did the composer Franz Liszt.

Brahms was introduced by Joachim to Clara and Robert Schumann, whose enthusiasm for Brahms's early works, especially his assistance in publishing the piano sonatas, helped to establish his reputation; Brahms's devotion to Schumann expressed itself in his lifelong care for Schumann's widow and children. His relationship to Clara was particularly close, and its exact nature has caused much interest and speculation. However, he never married, and after 1863, when he settled in Vienna, his life was uneventful except for occasional public appearances in Austria and Germany at which he played his own works. He was adopted by the anti-Wagnerian faction as the leader of traditional principles aginst 'modern' iconoclasm, and his fame as a composer spread rapidly.

Firmly based on classical foundations, his works contain hardly any programme music apart from a few pieces such as the Tragic Overture (1886) and the C minor quartet (1855-75, inspired by Goethe's Werther). He waited many years before venturing into great orchestral works: the first, Variations on a Theme of Haydn, appeared when he was 40, and his first symphony when he was 43. The Academic Festival Overture (1880), also dating from this period, was composed in honour of his honorary doctorate at Breslau University. His greatest choral work is the German Requiem, which had its first full performance in 1869. He wrote much chamber music, some of it inspired by the German clarinettist Richard M�hlfeld (1856-1907), whom he heard playing at Meiningen, and many songs. He was prolific in all fields except opera, and the quality of his work is extraordinarily even, largely because of his ruthless destruction of early efforts and his refusal to publish any work which failed to measure up to his self-imposed standards of excellence.

Bibliography: I Keys, Johannes Brahms (1989); M Musgrave, The Music of Brahms (1985); P Latham, Brahms (rev edn, 1975).