Johannes Brahms

German composer (1833–1897)

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Lived 1833–1897, aged 64Germany

Germany MusiciansSinger / Musician

Wikipedia
137 languages
Cross-language footprint
Rank in Germany
#48
Musicians
Era
1833–1897
Aged 64
Awards
8
recognised works

Summary

Updated 2026-06-08

He kept one foot in Bach's world and the other in his own century, building symphonies and songs that folded old counterpoint into a Romantic frame — and got dragged into a culture war for his trouble.

Biography

About

Born in Hamburg on 7 May 1833 to a musical family, Brahms toured Central Europe as a young pianist, meeting Franz Liszt in Weimar and eventually winning the backing of Robert and Clara Schumann. He lived with Clara in Düsseldorf during Robert's voluntary commitment and stayed devoted to her after Robert's death, though he never married. Critics cast him as the conservative in the War of the Romantics — a label he resented — while Eduard Hanslick praised his works as absolute music and Hans von Bülow named him heir to Bach and Beethoven, a claim Wagner ridiculed. He led Vienna's Singakademie an…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Johannes Brahms

Johannes Brahms

said12 Sep 1868

High on the mountain, deep in the valley, I greet you a thousandfold.

— Notes on a postcard to Clara Schumann (12 September 1868)

Johannes Brahms

said31 May 1856

I wish I could write to you as tenderly as I love you and tell you all the good things that I wish you. You are so infinitely dear to me, dearer than I can say...

— Letter to Clara Schumann (31 May 1856) as quoted in Letters of Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms, 1853-1896 (1971), edited by Berthold

Johannes Brahms

said12 Feb 1856

It always saddens me to think that after all I am not yet a proper musician; but I have more aptitude for the calling than probably many of the younger generation have as a rule.

— Letter to Clara Schumann (12 February 1856) as quoted in Johannes Brahms : A Biography (1997) by Jan Swafford, p. 153

Johannes Brahms

saidundated

On one stave, for a small instrument, the man writes a whole world of the deepest thoughts and most powerful feelings.

— Discussion of the Chaconne in Bach's Partita for Violin #2. Litzman, Berthold (editor). "Letters of Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms,

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

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Albums

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Volkslieder · Folksongs · Chansons Populaires
1975
Hungarian & Slavonic Dances
1975
A German Requiem / Alto Rhapsody
1975
Symphony No. 4 & Academic Festival Overture
1975
Piano Concerto no. 1 in D minor
1974
Piano Trio no. 3 / Cello Sonata no. 2
1973
The Complete String Quartets
1973
Die 3 Klaviertrios
1973
Concerto for Violin and Cello In A Minor / Variations On a Theme By Haydn / Gesang Der Parzen
1972
The Four Brahms Symphonies
1972