Born: 1833, Hamburg, Germany
Died: 1897, Vienna, Austria

“It is not hard to compose, but it is wonderfully hard to let the superfluous notes fall under the table.”

Brahms was a fascinating man. As a boy, he loved to play with toy soldiers, read scripture, and study music. He was a natural at the keyboard who started playing in public as a teenager in Hamburg’s waterfront pubs. His music combines the serious and the playful, the intellectual and the earthy in a way that reminded many of Brahms’ contemporaries of Beethoven. Brahms’ mastery is apparent in everything he composed, from his charming piano miniatures to his Olympian symphonies.

Further listening:

A German Requiem (1865-1868)
Charlotte Margiono, Rodney Gilfry,
Monteverdi Choir, Orchestre Révolutionnaire
et Romantique, John Eliot Gardiner (Philips)

Clarinet Quintet, Op. 115 (1891)
Paul Meyer; Renaud Capuçon,
Gautier Capuçon, et al.
(Virgin Classics)