J. Brahms

Biography

Johannes Brahms (; German: [joˈhanəs ˈbʁaːms] ; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid-Romantic period. His music features expressive counterpoint, freer dissonance, rhythmic vitality, and traditional forms. His works include four symphonies, four concertos, a Requiem, much chamber music, and hundreds of folk-song arrangements and Lieder (German art songs).

Born in Hamburg to a musical family, Brahms composed and performed locally in his youth before touring Central Europe as a pianist, premiering his own works and meeting Franz Liszt in Weimar. He worked with Ede Reményi and, through Joseph Joachim, gained 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, in which he regretted his involvement. But his works succeeded, gaining him a circle of supporters, friends, and musicians. Eduard Hanslick hailed them as absolute music, and Hans von Bülow named him 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 shared mutual admiration with Antonín Dvořák and Johann Strauss II. A new generation, including Max Reger and Alexander Zemlinsky, blended his style with Wagner's. So did Arnold Schoenberg, stressing the "progressive" structural coherence (developing variation) of Brahms's music. It remains a staple of the concert repertoire, influencing 21st-century composers.

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