| biography |
Johannes Brahms (born May 7 1833, died April 3 1897) was a German composer of classical music. He was seen by many as the natural successor to Ludwig van Beethoven. Today he is widely seen as one of the great composers of the 19th century.
Brahms was born in Hamburg. His father, who gave him his first music lessons, was a double bassist. Brahms showed early promise on the piano and helped to supplement the family income by playing the piano in restaurants, bars and brothels, as well as teaching. He gave a few public concerts, but did not become well known. He also began to compose, but his efforts did not receive much attention until he went on a concert tour with Eduard Remenyi in 1853. On this tour he met Joseph Joachim, Franz Liszt, Robert Schumann and Clara Schumann, with whom he became particularly close.
In 1862 he settled for good in Vienna and began to concentrate fully on composing. He found great success in this field. In 1876, he finally completed his first symphony, on which he had worked for many years. It was described by the conductor Hans von Bülow as "Beethoven's tenth symphony" and is often called that today.
Brahms wrote four symphonies in all, as well as two piano concertos, a violin concerto, and many pieces of chamber music. He died in Vienna from liver cancer.
Johannes
Brahms (1833-1897)
Johannes Brahms overcame
self-conscious doubts to create some of the most lasting music in
the repertory
by Thomas May
Some composers, like Mozart or George Gershwin, seem to have been
born in exactly the right era to match their creative temperament.
Others don't fit in so easily, experiencing a more self-conscious--even
detached--relationship to their historical context. It's in the
latter group that you'll find Johannes Brahms, whose stature as
one of the greatest of the great composers hasn't kept him from
being one of the most misunderstood as well.
[read
more...] |
| recommended
recordings |
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Brahms:
Symphonies nos 1-4, Haydn Variations / Sanderling
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Composer:
Johannes
Brahms
Conductor: Kurt
Sanderling
Ensemble: Dresden
Staatskapelle
Bmg/Eurodisc - #69220 / August 7, 1990
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here for more information |
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A thrilling Brahms cycle played by Germany's greatest orchestra
under the baton of a legendary conductor. Do not confuse this
set with Kurt Sanderling's later, less successful Brahms cycle
on Capriccio. This is the one to get, and at rock-bottom budget
price it's just one more proof of the fact that there's no
relationship between quality of performance and price. Even
if you already have a decent selection of Brahms symphonies,
you can afford to add this terrific set to your collection.
--David...Read
more
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Furtwangler
Conducts Brahms - Complete Symphonies, etc / North German
RSO, Berlin PO |
Composer:
Johannes
Brahms
Conductor: Wilhelm
FurtwŠngler
Performer: Edwin
Fischer
Ensemble: North
German Radio Symphony Orchestra, Berlin
Philharmonic Orchestra, et al.
Music & Arts - #4941 / November 16, 1999
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here for more information |
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What a bonanza: some of the most searching interpretations
ever made of symphonic cornerstones, from a now bygone
era of performance, here beautifully remastered by Music &
Arts and packaged into a bargain set. Wilhelm Furtwängler's
dynamic, always-evolving--and often unpredictable--visions
of a classic score could overwhelm listeners with their paradoxical
aura of the inevitable, wresting away the easy, dull comfort
of familiarity. This is most dramatically the case with the
conductor's performances
of Beethoven. They still move and shake us free of lazy
assumptions about this music with all the power of artistic
truth. Furtwängler came relatively late to Brahms (like
so many of the composer's most abiding admirers) but identified
deeply with Brahms's dark strain of melancholy and self-consciousness.
The Furtwängler trademarks are all here--palpable molding
of tempos and dynamics to concentrate drama, oracular moments
of insight, and an astonishingly compelling, organic sense
of the whole....Read
more
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Brahms:
Violinkonzert; Schumann: Fantasie / Mutter, Masur
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Composer:
Johannes
Brahms, Robert
Schumann
Conductor: Kurt
Masur
Performer: Anne-Sophie
Mutter
Ensemble: New
York Philharmonic Orchestra
Uni/Philips - #457075 / October 14, 1997
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here for more information |
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Miracles CAN happen! Anne-Sophie Mutter is a great violinist,
no doubt about it (and the highest paid classical performer
in Germany, according to some sources). Kurt Masur is reliable,
but rarely inspired. Well, here's one of those evenings where
everything went just right, for this is a Brahms concerto
that stands shoulder to shoulder with the great recordings
of the past. Mutter plays with her customary scrupulous attention
to detail, but also with a more than usual dose of passion
and fire,...Read
more
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Brahms,
Tchaikovsky: Violin Concertos / Heifetz, Reiner
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Composer:
Johannes
Brahms, Peter
Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Conductor: Fritz
Reiner
Performer: Jascha
Heifetz
Ensemble: Chicago
Symphony Orchestra
Bmg/Rca Victor - #61495 / March 9, 1993
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here for more information |
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| This recording was one for the record books from
the day it was made. There's an absolutely terrible 1940s
movie called Carnegie Hall about a woman who works
at the hall as an usher after the death of her drunken husband,
supporting her young, musically talented son. She wants him
to be a great...
Read more |
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Brahms:
Ein deutsches Requiem /Klemperer, Schwarzkopf, et al
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Composer:
Johannes
Brahms
Conductor: Otto
Klemperer
Performer: Ralph
Downes, Dietrich
Fischer-Dieskau, et al.
Ensemble: Philharmonia
Chorus, Philharmonia
Orchestra
Emd/Emi Classics - #66955 / January 12, 1999
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here for more information |
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This account of the German Requiem really is one of
the great recordings of the century. Even today, Otto Klemperer's
monumental interpretation with the Philharmonia Orchestra
and Chorus, recorded in 1961, remains unmatched among readings
that emphasize the spirituality of the score. Sober and sustained,
but not unduly slow, it places Brahms on the continuum of
German sacred music going back through Beethoven
to Handel, Bach, and Schütz.
Drawing committed playing and singing from his...Read
more
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Glenn
Gould Edition - Brahms: Ballades, Rhapsodies, etc
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Composer:
Johannes
Brahms
Performer: Glenn
Gould
Sony Classics - #52651 / March 9, 1993
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here for more information |
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Glenn Gould's accounts of the late pieces, recorded in 1960,
are among the most affecting statements he made. He manages
to balance the music on the edge of an almost unbearable emotional
intensity without becoming larmoyant or dipping into salon
sentimentality. The result is downright disturbing and depressing.
But few pianists have achieved such extraordinary distillations
of Brahms's late style as Gould does here, conveying painful
passion held in check and peering into the counterpoint, yet...Read
more
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Brahms:
Piano Concerto No 2, etc / Sviatoslav Richter
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Composer:
Johannes
Brahms, Ludwig
van Beethoven
Conductor: Erich
Leinsdorf
Performer: Sviatoslav
Richter
Ensemble: Chicago
Symphony Orchestra
Bmg/Rca Victor - #56518 / January 12, 1993
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here for more information |
|
Richter was one of the those great virtuoso egomaniac genius
types who was so insecure that he practiced for something
like 10 hours a day, even before a scheduled performance.
But it wasn't just getting the notes right that he was after.
He was looking for the way to somehow get an entire work "into
his hands," and trying to figure out the relationships between
all of its different parts. That's why his performances--even
the very slow one--have such an inevitable sounding organic
unity. This...Read
more
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| works
& recordings |
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- Chamber
Music
Trios, Quartets, Quintets
- Choral
Secular and sacred choral music. Oratorios, Masses, Partsongs,
Hymns, Carols
- Instrumental
Sonatas, Suites, Overtures, Minuets, Variations, Transcriptions,
Dance Music
- Orchestra
Concertos, Symphonies
- Vocal
and Opera
Opera, Operetta, Song, Lieder, Musical Theater
Complete
List of Works and Recordings
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