Despite his reputation as a serious composer of large, complex musical structures, some of Brahms's most widely known and most commercially successful compositions during his life were small-scale works of popular intent aimed at the thriving contemporary market for domestic music-making ; indeed, during the 20th century, the influential American critic B. H. Haggin, rejecting more mainstream views, argued in his various guides to recorded music that Brahms was at his best in such works and much less successful in larger forms.

Among the most cherished of these lighter works by Brahms are his sets of popular dances — the Hungarian Dances, the Waltzes, Op.

Among these was the devout Catholic Antonín Dvořák, the closest Brahms ever came to having a protégé.

Franz Liszt, Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Boris Blacher, Andrew Lloyd Webber, George Rochberg and Witold Lutosławski, among others, wrote well-known variations on these themes.

Against these critics, modern listeners often feel that Brahms was not really trying to produce a conventional vehicle for virtuoso display ; he had higher musical aims.

On the strengths of these sets, the conductor Kenneth Woods called him " the greatest Brahms conductor who ever lived.

" He also recorded the Brahms piano concertos with Emil Gilels, a recording that is often listed among the finest made of these works.

It is along these lines that Hanslick became one of Brahms ’ s champions ( although he did not rave about every piece, notably the Third Symphony ), and often pitted him against Wagner.

The reader may compare the two passages by following these links: Brahms, Haydn ( see below for link credits ).

( H ) e had recognizable affinities with all three of the principal musical tendencies of the period, with the conservatism of Brahms and his followers, with the modernism of the Liszt-Wagner school, and with the nationalism that was in almost every country … in Europe .” To be sure, he had personal contact with musical giants from each of these traditions.

Writing for Dvořák ’ s 100th anniversary, Julius Harrison agrees with these comparisons to Brahms ’ Symphony no.

The titles on these releases tend to be the compositions of Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart, and Schubert, also including works by Corelli, César Franck, Ravel, Debussy, Stravinsky and Alban Berg.

Almost to the end of her life, Flagstad continued to sing in fine voice, although she increasingly sang mezzo-soprano material or in a mezzo range: besides the Rheingold Fricka ( a mezzo role ), Decca planned to cast her also as the Walkure Fricka and the Gotterdammerung Waltraute for its complete Ring ( in the event, the roles were sung by others ), and also to record her in Brahms ’ Four Serious Songs and Alto Rhapsody ; that these plans were shelved only by her final illness and death stands as a testament to her superbly consistent vocal abilities, and to the respect and affection in which she was held to the end by record companies and the public.

Brahms also produced a transcription of these works for viola with alterations to better suit the solo part to a string instrument.

There is space for doubts, though, as to whether these pieces actually constitute a cycle or they were arbitrarily united by Brahms ( the third piece was written on different paper sheets than the first two even though there were empty sheets after the second one ).

In 1853 his friend Joseph Joachim had taken as his motto " Free, but lonely ", in German, Frei aber einsam, and from the notes represented by the first letters of these words, F – A – E, Schumann, Brahms and Dietrich had jointly composed a violin sonata dedicated to Joachim.

Johannes Brahms (; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897 ) was a German composer and pianist.

His large choral work A German Requiem is not a setting of the liturgical Missa pro defunctis but a setting of texts which Brahms selected from the Lutheran Bible.

Thus many admirers ( though not necessarily Brahms himself ) saw him as the champion of traditional forms and " pure music ", as opposed to the " New German " embrace of programme music.

Brahms wrote settings for piano and voice of 144 German folk songs, and many of his lieder reflect folk themes or depict scenes of rural life.

Brahms was honoured by the German Hall of Fame, the Walhalla memorial.

Composer Walter Niemann declared " The fact that Brahms began his creative activity with the German folk song and closed with the Bible reveals ... the true religious creed of this great man of the people.

When asked by conductor Karl Reinthaler to add additional sectarian text to his German Requiem, Brahms responded, " As far as the text is concerned, I confess that I would gladly omit even the word German and instead use Human ; also with my best knowledge and will I would dispense with passages like John 3: 16.

* 1833 – Johannes Brahms, German composer ( d. 1897 )

In the 19th century German composers continued to write motets occasionally, notably Felix Mendelssohn and Johannes Brahms ( in German ) and Anton Bruckner ( in Latin ).

* May 7 – Johannes Brahms, German composer ( d. 1897 )

* April 3 – Johannes Brahms, German composer ( b. 1833 )

Schoenberg was widely known early in his career for his success in simultaneously extending the traditionally opposed German Romantic styles of Brahms and Wagner.

Beginning with songs and string quartets written around the turn of the century, Schoenberg's concerns as a composer positioned him uniquely among his peers, in that his procedures exhibited characteristics of both Brahms and Wagner, who for most contemporary listeners, were considered polar opposites, representing mutually exclusive directions in the legacy of German music.

These included a critically acclaimed performance of Brahms ' German Requiem ( see Erich Leinsdorf for a complete list ).

Johannes Brahms and Richard Wagner dominated the German musical scene, and neither man wrote symphonic poems ; instead, they devoted themselves completely to music drama ( Wagner ) and absolute music ( Brahms ).

* 1979 Johannes Brahms: A German Requiem, Op.

* 1984 Johannes Brahms: A German Requiem, Op.

Key's first package offering included Brahms ' German Requiem, Haydn's Symphonies Nos.

His complex and well-structured works, in the German romantic musical tradition, placed him in the camp of Romantic classicism exemplified by Johannes Brahms, rather than the opposing " New Music " of Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner.

Although known for his performances of the French repertoire, his chief love was the music of German composers, above all Brahms.

The music that meant most to him was that of German composers, particularly Brahms, but this was often overlooked by concert promoters and recording companies.

Brahms, an uncompromising perfectionist, destroyed many of his works and left some of them unpublished.

The household was frequently visited by prominent cultural figures, among them the composers Johannes Brahms, Gustav Mahler, Josef Labor, and Richard Strauss, with whom the young Paul played duets.

For the orchestra, Henschel devised innovative orchestral seating charts and sent them to Brahms, who replied approvingly and commented on the issues raised by horn and viola sections in a letter of mid-November 1881.

Where their choices coincided, as in Beethoven, Brahms and Richard Strauss, Mengelberg was generous in giving Monteux at least his fair share of them.

As an influential critic, he played a major role in discovering new talents, among them Chopin and Brahms.

Noted for its smooth, sophisticated style, its seamless ensemble playing, and its sensitive interpretation, the quartet made some 200 recordings, among them the complete quartets of Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

German Classical is among the most performed in the world ; German composers include some of the most accomplished and popular in history, among them Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert, Johannes Brahms, and Richard Wagner.

He certainly had his admirers, among them Brahms, who almost never praised the works of other composers.

This effort, whose author was almost certainly Brahms, received at first four signatures among them those of Brahms and Joachim, though more were canvassed and eventually more were obtained.

He has made a number of recordings with them including Beethoven ’ s Eroica ( Harmonia Mundi ) and Stenhammer Piano Concerti ( Hyperion ) and a cycle of the Brahms ’ symphonies.

He has recorded a number of CDs with them including Beethoven ’ s Eroica ( Harmonia Mundi ) and Stenhammar Piano Concerti ( Hyperion ) and the recording of a Brahms cycle for CPO is currently underway.

Ruth Laredo also recorded more than 20 albums featuring works of other composers, among them Isaac Albéniz, Bach, Beethoven, Lili Boulanger, Brahms, Chopin, Falla, Debussy, Khachaturian, Fauré, Mozart, Poulenc, Ravel, Clara and Robert Schumann, Tchaikovsky as well as of the American composers Barber, Aaron Copland, Ives, Laderman, Kirchner, Rorem and Siegmeister.

Despite the great differences between the two men in musical style and an underlying tension based on musical politics — Brahms championing a more conservative approach to music while Wagner, along with Franz Liszt, called for " the music of the future " with new forms and new tonalities — Wagner complimented the work graciously, if not wholeheartedly, saying, " One sees what still may be done in the old forms when someone comes along who knows how to use them ".