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.”

As a boy, Brahms loved to play with toy soldiers, read scripture, and study music. He 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 his contemporaries of Beethoven.