Page "Johannes Brahms" Paragraph 8

For a time, Brahms also learned the cello.

After his early piano lessons with Otto Cossel, Brahms studied piano with Eduard Marxsen, who had studied in Vienna with Ignaz von Seyfried ( a pupil of Mozart ) and Carl Maria von Bocklet ( a close friend of Schubert ).

The young Brahms gave a few public concerts in Hamburg, but did not become well known as a pianist until he made a concert tour at the age of nineteen.

( In later life, he frequently took part in the performance of his own works, whether as soloist, accompanist, or participant in chamber music.

) He conducted choirs from his early teens, and became a proficient choral and orchestral conductor.