Johannes
Brahms
* 7/V/1833 Hamburg
+ 3/IV/1897 Vienna
el texto en inglés:
Born in Hamburg, the son of a double-bass player and his older seamstress wife, Brahms attracted the attention of Schumann, to whom he was introduced by the violinist Joachim, and after Schumann's death he maintained a long friendship with his widow, the pianist Clara Schumann, whose advice he always valued. Brahms eventually settled in Vienna, where to some he seemed the awaited successor to Beethoven. His blend of classicism in form with a romantic harmonic idiom made him the champion of those opposed to the musical innovations of Wagner and Liszt. In Vienna he came to occupy a position similar to that once held by Beethoven, his gruff idiosyncrasies tolerated by those who valued his genius.
Brahms completed some two dozen pieces of chamber music and almost all of these have some claim on our attention. For violin and piano there are three sonatas, Opp. 78, 100 and 108, with a separate Scherzo movement for a collaborative sonata he wrote with Schumann and Dietrich for their friend Joachim. For cello and piano he wrote two fine sonatas, Opp. 38 and 99. There are two late sonatas, written in 1894, for clarinet or viola and piano, Op. 120, each version deserving attention, with a Trio for clarinet, cello and piano, Op. 114 and a Quintet for clarinet and string quartet, Op. 115, written three years earlier. In addition to this mention must be made of the three Piano Trios, Opp. 8, 87 and 101, the Trio for violin, horn and piano, Op. 40, three Piano Quartets, Opp. 25, 26 and 60, a Piano Quintet, Op. 34 and three String Quartets, Opp.51 and 67. Two String Sextets, Opp. 18 and 36, and two String Quintets, Opp. 88 and 111, make up the list.
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