Brahms and some of his works

In the then free city of Hamburg Johannes Brahms was born on May 7, 1833. His parents were in humble circumstances, and Johannes was born in a poor part of the city. But his father was a well-trained musician and an accomplished double-bass player, and his mother, seventeen years his father's senior, was a woman of fine spirit and unusual intelligence.

From an early age Johannes was clearly destined for a musical career, and at six he had already begun to learn the rudiments of music from his father, who purposed making an orchestral player of him. When he was eight he began to take piano lessons of Otto Cossel, his father feeling he had nothing more to teach the child. Cossel pronounced him an excellent pupil, but complained that he wasted time on his "everlasting composing."

Two years later Cossel, convinced that he deserved more advanced instruction, took him to his own teacher, Eduard Marxsen, the royal music director in the adjacent city of Altona. Marxsen accepted the new pupil unwillingly, but presently he was impressed with the keenness of the boy's mind. Beginning with piano lessons, he later studied composition, and Marxsen, thorough about all instruction, encouraged him to compose as well as to perfect himself as a pianist. Incidentally, Johannes became a great reader of books.

At the age of eleven Johannes appeared, together with his father, as pianist at a private subscription concert organized to raise money to continue his education. Then and there an impresario wanted to engage him for a concert tour that was to include America. But Cossel protested effectively against his being exploited as a prodigy. Nevertheless, the Brahms family was so poor at this time that Johannes was obliged to add to their income by playing the piano in sailors' resorts. This work, which often lasted into the morning hours, affected his health adversely.

He continued to compose, however, and a turning point came when he had the chance to undertake a tour with the young Hungarian violinist Eduard Remenyi. In the course of this association he not only got acquainted with Hungarian national dances, which were to influence considerably his compositions, but he met a variety of important musicians, among them Joachim, Liszt, Cornelius, Raff, Berlioz, and, above all, Robert and Clara Schumann. Thereafter Robert Schumann, until his tragic death, was the young man's champion and mentor, and Clara Schumann became his devoted lifelong friend.

Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in D Minor, No. 1, Op. 15

Although Brahms's earlier works included not only compositions for the piano, songs, and chamber music, but also the Serenade for Full Orchestra in D, it was not till the spring and summer of 1854 that we find him engaged on a symphony. This made such progress that in January, 1855, he could write to Robert Schumann: "I have been trying my hand at a symphony during the past summer, have even orchestrated the first movement and composed the second and third."

The symphony was never completed as such, however, but turned into a sonata for two pianos. Still, this was not the end of the matter. Advised that the musical contents of the sonata deserved a more imposing form, Brahms was persuaded to mould the material into a concerto. Accordingly the first two movements took up a corresponding position in the D minor Piano Concerto, the third becoming the chorus "Behold All Flesh" in "A German Requiem."

The first public performance of the concerto took place in Hanover on January 22, 1859, at one of the Court subscription concerts in the Royal Theatre, Brahms being the pianist, Joachim the conductor. Though the cognoscenti admired the new work, the public in general found it a hard nut to crack. And as a matter of notorious fact the concerto was to make its way slowly. Only in the present century, for instance, has it won full recognition in this country.

The first movement (Maestoso, D minor, 6-8) has a long orchestral introduction before the piano enters. Over a roll on the kettledrums the chief subject is announced in the strings:

The second subject is given out by the piano in F major. The movement ends with an extended and brilliant coda. The second movement (Adagio, D major, 6-4) bears in the manuscript score the motto: "Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini." Max Kalbeck, Brahm's biographer, says that this inscription refers to Robert Schumann, whose death had affected Brahms deeply and whom he had sometimes addressed as "Mynheer Domine." The first theme, to which the fanciful may fit the Latin words, appears in the strings and bassoons, to be taken up later by the solo instrument. The movement has a contrasting middle section. The finale is a long and elaborate Rondo (Allegro non troppo, D minor, 2-4), ending in a majestic and triumphant coda.

This concerto, owing to the exceeding prominence given to the orchestra, really ranks as an orchestral composition, and it was years before Brahms attempted another on a like scale. In 1873 he brought out the "Variations on a Theme by Haydn." Though meanwhile he had written copiously, only the two modest Serenades had been composed for orchestra.

Variations for Orchestra on a Theme by Haydn, Op. 56a

Now a permanent resident of Vienna, Brahms spent his summer holiday in 1873 at Tutzing on the Starnbergersee in southern Bavaria. A version of the Variations for two pianos Brahms marked "Tutzing, July, 1873." Whether it was the first of the two versions we do not know. On November 2 the orchestral version was brought out in Vienna at a Philharmonic Concert, Otto Dessoff conducting.

The theme by Haydn comes from an unpublished divertimento for wind instruments, preserved at the State Library in Berlin, which is inscribed "Divertimento mit dem Chorale St. Antoni." Though the melody of the chorale is usually supposed to be Haydn's own, we cannot be sure that he had not taken it from a chorale that has now disappeared.

In Haydn's key of B-flat major the theme

is given out andante in 2-4 time and repeated. Eight variations follow:

I. (Poco piu animato, major mode). Throughout the initial variation the concluding notes of the introduction ring like a tolling of bells.

II. (Più vivace, minor mode). The clarinets and bassoons take the lead. The violins supply an arpeggio figure.

III. (Con moto, major mode). The theme in this tranquil section is given first to the oboes and bassoons.

IV. (Andante con moto, minor mode). New melodic material enters. Oboe and horn announce the theme.

V. (Vivace, major mode). Flutes, oboes, and bassoons have the melody.

VI. (Vivace, minor mode). Brilliant like its predecessor, this variation introduces a new figure.

VII. (Grazioso, major mode). In Siciliano rhythm (6-8), the seventh variation is generally regarded as the crowning glory of the set. Against a descending scale for first violins and clarinets, violas and piccolo play the melody. Then the first violins give out a theme whose first four notes provide the movement with its rhythmic basis. There is a wealth of fascinating detail.

VIII. (Presto non troppo, minor mode). In a mysterious whisper of muted strings the last variation leads darkly to the Finale. (Andante, major mode). A ground bass, five measures long and repeated twelve times below a variety of harmonies, occupies much of this summing up. At a signal from the triangle an outburst of vernal life sweeps through the orchestra, ending with the theme in fortissimo proclamation.