Since Brahms himself clearly originated the story, however, some have questioned Hoffman's theory.

Analysts and scholars remain divided, however, as to whether the voice that introduces the piece is that of Wangemann or of Brahms.

Other contemporaries, however, found the first movement especially dark, and Reinhold Brinkmann, in a study of Symphony No. 2 in relation to 19th century ideas of melancholy, has published a revealing letter from Brahms to the composer and conductor Vinzenz Lachner in which Brahms confesses to the melancholic side of his nature and comments on specific features of the movement that reflect this.

Goldmark, however would ultimately distance himself because of Brahms ' prickly personality.

Critical reaction to the work was mixed: the canard that the work was not so much for violin as " against the violin " is attributed equally to conductor Hans von Bülow and to Joseph Hellmesberger, to whom Brahms entrusted the Vienna premiere, which was however rapturously received by the public.

Unlike Brahms, Brüll was a man of the theatre, and he went on to compose at least seven more operas, which however did not approach the same level of popular success as Das Goldene Kreuz.

Moritz Moszkowski once underscribed an autograph book which had been previously inscribed by the great German conductor, virtuoso pianist and composer Hans von Bülow, who had written the following words: " The three greatest composers are Bach, Beethoven and Brahms.

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.

Even after its first few performances, Brahms destroyed the original slow movement and substituted another before the score was published.

His pupil Gustav Jenner wrote, " Brahms has acquired, not without reason, the reputation for being a grump, even though few could also be as lovable as he.

An old anecdote recounts that when Strauss's wife Adele asked Brahms to autograph her fan, he wrote the first few notes of the " Blue Danube " waltz, and then wrote the words " Unfortunately not by Johannes Brahms!

This helped to establish the orchestra's international reputation, and guests Hans Richter, Felix von Weingartner, Richard Strauss, Gustav Mahler, Johannes Brahms and Edvard Grieg conducted the orchestra over the next few years.

Joachim, who had first been alerted when Brahms informed him in August that " a few violin passages " would be coming in the mail, was eager that the concerto should be playable and idiomatic, and collaborated willingly, not that all his advice was heeded in the final score.

Others whom Sechter taught include the composer Henri Vieuxtemps, the conductor Franz Lachner, the teacher Eduard Marxsen ( who taught Johannes Brahms piano and counterpoint ), the composer and teacher Johann Nepomuk Fuchs, Gustav Nottebohm, Karl Umlauf, the conductor and composer Kéler Béla and the pianist-composers Sigismond Thalberg, Adolf von Henselt, and Theodor Döhler, to list a few.

Here Brahms uses counterpoint in the form of a two-part canon in octaves, including inverted canon for several measures in the second half.

* 1962 – Leonard Bernstein causes controversy with his remarks from the podium during a New York Philharmonic concert featuring Glenn Gould performing Brahms ' First Piano Concerto.

In his music, Schmidt continued to develop the Viennese classic-romantic traditions he inherited from Schubert, Brahms and his own master, Bruckner.

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

Photograph from 1891 of the building in Hamburg where Brahms was born.

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.

The latter's influence may be identified in works by Brahms dating from the period, such as the two piano quartets Op.

Antonín Dvořák, who received substantial assistance from Brahms, deeply admired his music and was influenced by it in several works, such as the Symphony No. 7 in D minor and the F minor Piano Trio.

Features of the ' Brahms style ' were absorbed in a more complex synthesis with other contemporary ( chiefly Wagnerian ) trends by Hans Rott, Wilhelm Berger, Max Reger and Franz Schmidt, whereas the British composers Hubert Parry and Edward Elgar and the Swede Wilhelm Stenhammar all testified to learning much from Brahms's example.

* Johannes Brahms: list of works from http :// www. johannesbrahms. org

* Free scores of Brahms Lieder and orchestral works in GIF format from the Variations Project at Indiana University.

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.

Even the music of the Romantic movement, including Liszt, Chopin, Robert Schumann, Felix Mendelssohn and Johannes Brahms, was written for pianos substantially different from modern pianos.

His symphonies deliberately followed a pattern, each one building on the achievements of its predecessors .... His melodic and harmonic style changed little, and it had as much of Schubert in it as of Wagner .... His technique in the development and transformation of themes, learnt from Beethoven, Liszt and Wagner, was unsurpassed, and he was almost the equal of Brahms in the art of melodic variation.

* Miss Brahms, a fictional character from the British comedy show, Are You Being Served?

In creating his own music, he tended to avoid the more monumental composers as models, finding relatively little kinship with or inspiration from Beethoven, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Berlioz or Franck.

She forgot that her husband's birthday was that night, and only remembered when a birthday present, a rare Brahms recording, arrived from Addie Ross.

Famous composers from the second half of the century include Johann Strauss II, Brahms, Liszt, Čajkovskij, Verdi, and Wagner.

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 ).

While his early music was inspired by composers such as Brahms and Grieg, he soon started to develop his own style, first experimenting with progressive tonality and later diverging even more radically from the standards of composition still common at the time.

Perhaps the greatest tribute that Brahms paid to Strauss was his remark that he would have given anything to have written The Blue Danube waltz.

When Strauss's stepdaughter, Alice von Meyszner-Strauss, asked the composer Johannes Brahms to sign her autograph-fan, he wrote down the first bars of The Blue Danube, but adding " Leider nicht von Johannes Brahms " (" Alas!

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.

Writers like Dickens and Tolstoy, painters like Turner, and musicians like Brahms were not radicals or " Bohemians ", but were instead valued members of society who produced art that added to society, even when critiquing its less desirable aspects.

Warner Brothers also produced the cartoon " Three Pigs in a Polka ", set to Johannes Brahms ' Hungarian Dances.

The most famous lullaby is Johannes Brahms ' " Brahms ' Lullaby " (" Wiegenlied ", 1868 ).

* In addition, Brahms regarded the scherzo from his Second Piano Concerto as a " little wisp of a scherzo ", yet only sarcastically, as it is a heavyweight movement.

The daughters were the subject of a song, " The Mitford Sisters ", by Luke Haines and a musical, The Mitford Girls, by Caryl Brahms and Ned Sherrin.

The most unusual work written for Joachim was the F-A-E Sonata, a collaboration between Schumann, Brahms, and Albert Dietrich, based upon the initials of Joachim's motto, Frei aber Einsam ( which can be translated as " free but lonely ", " free but alone ", or " free but solitary ").

Johannes Brahms composed settings ( op. 33 ) of verses from Ludwig Tieck's novel " Magelone ", and modern performances usually include some sort of connecting narration.

The familiar story of the Three Little Pigs is set in this film to several of Brahms ' " Hungarian Dances ", specifically No. 5, No. 7, No. 6 and No. 17 which appear in that order.

Further humor is obtained by replacing parts of certain classical pieces with similar common songs, such as the opening of Brahms ' Symphony # 2 with " Beautiful Dreamer ", or the opening of Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture with Yankee Doodle.

In a letter to his close personal friend, the renowned violinist Joseph Joachim, Brahms stated, " I am only experimenting and feeling my way ", adding sadly, " all the same, the hissing was rather too much.

* 1978 – Bach / Brahms / Reger: " Geistliche Motetten " (" Sacred Motets ", KKB ( private label ), EDT 80031 ; out of print )

In his correspondence with Carl Reinthaler, when Reinthaler expressed concern over this, Brahms refused to add references to " the redeeming death of the Lord ", as Reinthaler described it, such as John 3: 16.

One of Weidman's major works was " Brahms Waltzes ", which was dedicated to Doris Humphrey " because it was the kind of movement she loved and could dance so beautifully ".

* Lawson, Colin ( 1998 ), " Brahms: Clarinet Quintet ", Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-58831-6

* " Elisabeth Grümmer, Lieder by Schubert, Brahms, Grieg und Verdi ", conductor Hugo Diez and Richard Kraus, TESTAMENT B000003XJQ ( 1996 )

* " Recital 1970, Lieder by Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart, Reger, Schubert, Schumann, Strauss, Wolf ", Dirigent Richard Kraus, GALA B000028CLY 2CD-Album ( 2001 )

* " Elisabeth Grümmer sings Mozart, Schubert, Brahms, Wolf ", Historic recordings 1956 / 1958.

38, actually entitled " Sonate für Klavier und Violoncello ", was written by Johannes Brahms in 1862-65.

In the course of a private performance for an audience of friends, Brahms played so loudly that the worthy Gänsbacher complained that he could not hear his cello at all-" Lucky for you, too ", growled Brahms, and let the piano rage on.