The first is a typical classical orchestra ( i. e. Beethoven / Haydn ), the second is typical of an early / mid-romantic ( i. e. Brahms / Dvořák / Tchaikovsky ), late romantic / early 20th century ( i. e. Wagner / Mahler / Stravinsky ), to the common complement of a present day modern orchestras ( i. e. Adams / Barber / Copland / Glass ).

* Brahms Paganini 3 / 24 / 80

* The Brahms / Haydn Variations aka: Variations on a Theme by Haydn 3 / 21 / 00

* Brahms Opus 111 9 / 25 / 08

* Brahms / Handel, with Jerome Robbins 6 / 7 / 84

* 1996 Brahms / Beethoven / Mozart: Clarinet Trios ( Sony 57499 )

Although Wagner became fiercely critical of Brahms as the latter grew in stature and popularity, he was enthusiastically receptive of the early Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel ; Brahms himself, according to many sources ( Swafford, 1999 ), deeply admired Wagner's music, confining his ambivalence only to the dramaturgical precepts of Wagner's theory.

The Queen was suitably impressed by her performance and would call Albani back to perform other pieces, by composers such as Brahms, Grieg, Handel and Mendelssohn, as well as traditional French and Scottish tunes.

She was accompanied by Ernest Lush, and played sonatas by Handel, Brahms, Debussy and de Falla, and a solo cello suite by Bach.

He was fond of using metaphors to illustrate his ideas, as in this quotation from the Essays ( on Brahms ' Handel Variations, Tovey 1922 ):

He began her coaching in Bach, Handel and Brahms, and steered her away from Verdi.

Many of the best classical musicians such as Bach, Handel, Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Wagner, Mahler, or Schoenberg ( A lineage labeled the " German Stem " by Igor Stravinsky ) were German.

These arrangements are drawn from folk tunes and from composers such as Bach, Telemann, Dvořák, Beethoven, Schubert, Handel, Paganini, Boccherini and Brahms.

In the diary his wife kept during his 1909 Russian tour, she mentions his raising his eyebrows when he saw Brahms ' Handel Variations on a program — a piece he had not played or even looked at for two and a half years.

In the Romantic era Brahms wrote a siciliana as the nineteenth variation in his Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel for solo piano ( 1861 ).

Instrumental – Brahms Handel Variations.

Biographer Jan Swafford describes the Handel Variations as " perhaps the finest set of piano variations since Beethoven ", adding, " Besides a masterful unfolding of ideas concluding with an exuberant fugue with a finish designed to bring down the house, the work is quintessentially Brahms in other ways: the filler of traditional forms with fresh energy and imagination ; the historical eclectic able to start off with a gallant little tune of Handel's, Baroque ornaments and all, and integrate it seamlessly into his own voice, in a work of massive scope and dazzling variety.

The Handel Variations were written in September 1861 after Brahms, aged 28, abandoned the work he had been doing as director of the Hamburg women's choir ( Frauenchor ) and moved out of his family's cramped and shabby apartments in Hamburg to his own apartment in the quiet suburb of Hamm, initiating a highly productive period that produced " a series of early masterworks ".

Because the theme for the Handel variations originated in the Baroque era, Brahms included forms such as a siciliana, a musette, a canon and, of course, a fugue.

While Handel had written only five variations on his theme, Brahms, with the piano as his instrument rather than the more limited harpsichord, enlarged the scope of his opus to 25 variations ending with an extended fugue.

An entry in Clara Schumann's diary about the Handel Variations gives an idea of how close the relationship between her and Brahms was, as well as Brahms's sometimes extraordinary insensitivity: " On Dec 7th I gave another soirée, at which I played Johannes ' Handel Variations.

During that winter, Brahms also gave performances of the Handel Variations, as a result of which he made minor alterations to the score.

With the " complete failure ," as he described it to Clara, of his first large-scale orchestral work, the First Piano Concerto, the Handel Variations became an important landmark in the developing career of Brahms.

During what was probably the first meeting of Brahms and Richard Wagner in January 1863, Brahms performed his Handel Variations.

The ballet Brahms / Handel, made by New York City Ballet balletmaster Jerome Robbins in collaboration with Twyla Tharp, was set to this orchestration.

Lewis made a number of recordings, including Messiah ( Handel ), L ' incoronazione di Poppea ( Monteverdi ), Idomeneo ( Mozart ), Liebeslieder Walzer and Neue Liebeslieder Walzer ( Brahms ), Coleridge-Taylor's The Song of Hiawatha, Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius, Benjamin Britten's Spring Symphony ( with Leonard Bernstein ), scenes from William Walton's Troilus and Cressida, and four different performances of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde, two with Maureen Forrester, ( Reiner / Walter ) one with Kathleen Ferrier ( Barbirolli ), and a fourth with Lili Chookasian ( Ormandy ).

Brahms's father, Johann Jakob Brahms ( 1806 – 72 ), came to Hamburg from Dithmarschen, seeking a career as a town musician.

4, at sight ), Reményi was offended by Brahms's failure to praise Liszt's Sonata in B minor wholeheartedly ( Brahms supposedly fell asleep during a performance of the recently composed work ), and they parted company shortly afterwards.

Brahms wrote a number of major works for orchestra, including two serenades, four symphonies, two piano concertos ( No. 1 in D minor ; No. 2 in B-flat major ), a Violin Concerto, a Double Concerto for violin and cello, and two companion orchestral overtures, the Academic Festival Overture and the Tragic Overture.

In 1933, Schoenberg wrote an essay " Brahms the Progressive " ( re-written 1947 ), which drew attention to Brahms's fondness for motivic saturation and irregularities of rhythm and phrase ; in his last book ( Structural Functions of Harmony, 1948 ), he analysed Brahms's " enriched harmony " and exploration of remote tonal regions.

To adults, Brahms was often brusque and sarcastic ( again, like Beethoven ), and he often alienated other people.

A child prodigy in composing, Steiner received piano instruction from Johannes Brahms and, at the age of sixteen, enrolled at the Imperial Academy of Music ( now known as the University of Music and Performing Arts ), where he was taught by Gustav Mahler among others.

This first concert consists of music by Vivaldi ( at a time when he was still seldom played ), Mozart, and Brahms.

His works, the symphonies in particular, had detractors, most notably the influential Austrian critic Eduard Hanslick, and other supporters of Johannes Brahms ( and detractors of Wagner ), who pointed to their large size, use of repetition, and Bruckner's propensity to revise many of his works, often with the assistance of colleagues, and his apparent indecision about which versions he preferred.

3 ( 1899 – 1903 ), for example, exhibit a conservative clarity of tonal organization typical of Brahms and Mahler, reflecting an interest in balanced phrases and an undisturbed hierarchy of key relationships.

Präparierter Text 1 is adapted from the second movement of Brahms ' Symphony No. 1, and is for violin and magnetic tape ; Präparierter Text 2 is adapted from the first movement of Mozart's Jupiter Symphony ( No. 41 ), and is for flute, trumpet, timpani, violin, cello and double bass ; Präparierter Text 3 is adapted from the fourth movement of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, and is for cymbal, bass drum and magnetic tape ; and Präparierter Text 4 is adapted from the Ricercar a 6 from Johann Sebastian Bach's Musical Offering and is for chamber orchestra ( a version for full orchestra followed in 1970 ).

From its opening bars, Symphony No. 1 in G minor ( 1890 – 92 ), while reflecting the influence of Grieg and Brahms, shows Nielsen's individuality.

** George Szell ( conductor ), David Oistrakh, Mstislav Rostropovich & the Cleveland Orchestra for Brahms: Double Concerto ( Concerto in A Minor for Violin and Cello )

** Thomas Frost ( producer ), Richard King ( engineer ), Neville Marriner ( conductor ), Hilary Hahn & the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields for Brahms / Stravinsky: Violin Concertos

** James Mallinson ( producer ), Georg Solti ( conductor ) & the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for Brahms: Symphonies ( 1-4 )

** Georg Solti ( conductor ), Margaret Hillis ( choir director ), & the Chicago Symphony Orchestra & Chorus for Brahms: A German Requiem