BRAHMS, Johannes

Johannes Brahms

His significant output comprises chamber music, piano works, numerous choral compositions and songs (including settings of folk-song lyrics), as well as large-scale orchestral works in the 1870s and 1880s. His compositions are characterized by the process of developing variation. He is considered an antithesis to the New German School around Liszt, and an advocate of “absolute” music.

1833	Born in Hamburg on May 7, the son of a musician. His first piano instruction with Willibald Cossel at age seven, then with Eduard Marxen; first public performances from 1843.
1853	Concert tour through German cities; he meets Schumann, who announces him as the next great composer in his essay “Neue Bahnen” (“New Paths”). A lifelong, intimate friendship develops with Clara Schumann.
1854–57	Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, Op. 15.
1857–59	Choir director, pianist, and teacher at the royal court in Detmold.
1859–61	Director of the Hamburg Women’s Choir.
1860	Manifesto against the New Germans around Liszt.
1863	Cantata “Rinaldo,” Op. 50.
1863–64	Director of the Wiener Singakademie.
1868	Partial performance in Vienna of “A German Requiem,” Op. 45 (the complete work premiered in Leipzig in 1869)
1871–74	Artistic director of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde (Society of Friends of Music) in Vienna.
1873	Haydn Variations, Op. 56a, for orchestra.
from 1877	His symphonic output begins with the Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68 (begun 1862); composition of the Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 73; the Symphony No. 3 in F major, Op. 90 (1883); and Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98 (1884–85): cantabile themes, chamber-music-like style.
from 1878	Travels in Italy.
1878	Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77, for Joseph Joachim.
1881	Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat major, Op. 83, with a scherzo movement.
1886	Honorary president of Vienna’s Tonkünstlerverein (Association of Musicians).
1897	Four Serious Songs, Op. 121. Dies in Vienna on April 3.

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