Johanners Brahms 1833-1897

Robert Schumann “The Mentor”

Clara Schumann “ The Muse”

Brahams studied piano from the age of seven, at 13, he studied theory and composition, and was an arrange for his father’s dance orchestra. In 1853, 20-year-old Brahms, was on tour with the Hungarian violinist Eduard Remenyi. It was then he met violinist Joseph Joachim.Joachim recommended his new friend meet the great composer Robert Schumann.

Schumann was married to world-famous concert pianist Clara Wieck. Young Brahms played some of his work for the Schumanns. Upon hearing the works Robert Schumann declared Brahms to be “genius”, and wrote an article for his publication “New Journal for Music” called “New Paths”.Schumann hailed the young composer to be the genius of German music, and compared him to Beethoven. This praise made the public skeptical and the critics Venomous.

Brahms’ artistic credo can be summed up in one statement…“If we cannot compose as beautifully, as Mozart or Haydn, let us at least try, and compose as purely”

That perfectionism would cause him to take 11 years to finish his first symphony. Brahms beloved mentor, Robert Schumann, had a fourth and final nervous breakdown. At the end of 1853,Brahms moved to Dusseldorf to assist Clara Schumann and her family.On July 31, 1856, Robert Schumann died in an insane asylum.

Brahms developed a friendship with Clara that he described as “The most beautiful experience of my life, its greatest wealth, its noblest content”. Clara was the one who the tremendously self-critical Brahms first sent his works. Hers was the only opinion that mattered.Brahms was intensely aware of weight of tradition he was trying to uphold.

It is estimated the chamber music we have is only one quarter of what he actually wrote. He ruthlessly destroyed anything he considered unworthy, so we have no notes or sketchbooks to understand him by. He was a slow and meticulous worker. He took 11 years, 2 orchestra serenades, and his first piano concerto as preparation for the act of writing his first symphony.

Brahms said, referring to Beethoven, “You have no idea what it is to hear the tromp of genius over your shoulder.”Brahms was famously “prickly” on the surface, but friends knew it was to guard a vulnerable and sensitive soul. Much of the power and attraction of Brahms’ music, is the great wamth of a romantic spirit, held in check by the most rigorous intellect. If Brahms wears his heart on his sleeve,  it is only after he has painstakingly knitted the sweater from the purest wool.

For Clara Schumann’s sixty-fourth birthday, Brahms was going to bring her a bouquet.But the shop was out of his way. Instead, he sent her the score to his Third Symphony.Clara remarked,” I have spent such happy hours with your wonderful creation…” “What a work””What a poem!”This symphony illuminates Brahms’ relationship with Clara,as well as pays tribute to his friend Robert Schumann.

In July 1896, Brahms’ dear clara died, Brahms died in April 1897. Although cancer ravaged his body, some say with the death of his muse… His life’s work was done.