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[[Image:Johannes Brahms.jpg|right|thumb|250px|Johannes Brahms, c.1853]]

[[Image:Johannes Brahms.jpg|right|thumb|250px|Johannes Brahms, ca. 1853.]]

'''Johannes Brahms''' (1833-1897) was a German [[classical music]] composer, whom [[conductor]] Hans van Bülow dubbed as one of the "three ''B's''" ([[Bach]], [[Beethoven]], and Brahms). Joseph Machlis, contrasting him with contemporaries [[Hector Berlioz|Berlioz]], [[Richard Wagner|Wagner]], and [[Franz Liszt|Liszt]], called him

'''Johannes Brahms''' (Hamburg, 1833 - 1897) was a German [[classical music]] composer, whom [[conductor]] Hans van Bülow dubbed as one of the "three ''B's''" ([[Bach]], [[Beethoven]], and Brahms). Joseph Machlis, contrasting him with contemporaries [[Hector Berlioz|Berlioz]], [[Richard Wagner|Wagner]], and [[Franz Liszt|Liszt]], called him:

:an austere, high-minded musician dedicated to the purity of the classical style. His veneration for the past and his mastery of the architecture of absolute music brought him closer to the spirit of Beethoven than any of his contemporaries.<ref>Machlis, Joseph (1970), ''The Enjoyment of Music,'' 3rd edition, W. W. Norton</ref>

:an austere, high-minded musician dedicated to the purity of the classical style. His veneration for the past and his mastery of the architecture of absolute music brought him closer to the spirit of Beethoven than any of his contemporaries.<ref>Machlis, Joseph (1970), ''The Enjoyment of Music,'' 3rd edition, W. W. Norton</ref>

As a pianist he was prodigious enough to be have been offered a concert tour of America before his teens;<ref>Musgrave, A Brahms Reader, Yale University Press</ref> but in spite of this, and the urging of his family, he set his sights on composition. He struggled to gain recognition in this until the publication of his “German Requiem” in 1869; a work recognised as one of the masterworks of its genre. He had recently moved to Vienna, the capital of the Hapsburg Empire, and hub of cultural life. It suited him, and the works written in the next few years were to bring him fame and financial security. When he died in 1897 he was given a state procession with thousands walking behind his coffin.

As a pianist he was prodigious enough to be have been offered a concert tour of America before his teens;<ref>Musgrave, A Brahms Reader, Yale University Press</ref> but in spite of this, and the urging of his family, he set his sights on composition. He struggled to gain recognition in this until the publication of his “German Requiem” in 1869; a work recognised as one of the masterworks of its genre. He had recently moved to Vienna, the capital of the Hapsburg Empire, and hub of cultural life. It suited him, and the works written in the next few years were to bring him fame and financial security. When he died in 1897 he was given a state procession with thousands walking behind his coffin.

==Works==

==Works==

*4 Symphonies

*4 Symphonies

Reviewing the first performance of Symphony No. 1, critic Eduard Hanslick suggested that Brahms had relied rather too heavily on Beethoven, and that the regal string melody of the fourth movement was strikingly similar to Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" . Conductor Hans von Bülow agreed with Hanslick's assessment, and memorably tagged the piece "Beethoven's Tenth"<ref> http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/brahms_sym1.html </ref>.

Reviewing the first performance of Symphony No. 1, critic Eduard Hanslick suggested that Brahms had relied rather too heavily on Beethoven, and that the regal string melody of the fourth movement was strikingly similar to Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" . Conductor Hans von Bülow agreed with Hanslick's assessment, and memorably tagged the piece "Beethoven's Tenth"<ref> http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/brahms_sym1.html </ref>.

==References==

==References==