Brahms: String Quintets Nos. 1 And 2

Description

Johannes Brahms (1833 - 1897)String QuintetsString Quintet No.1 in F major, Op. 88String Quintet No.2 in G major, Op. 111Johannes Brahms was born on 7th May 1833 in the Gangeviertel district ofHamburg, the son of Johann Jakob Brahms, a double-bass player, and his wife, aseamstress seventeen years his senior. As was natural, he was at first taughtmusic by his father, the violin and cello, with the intention that the boyshould follow his father's trade, but his obvious interest in the piano led tolessons on the instrument from an inspiring teacher and his first modestappearance on the concert platform at the age of ten. From this time onwards hebecame a pupil of Eduard Marxsen, who gave him a firm grounding in classicaltechnique, while he earned money for his family by playing the piano inestablishments of doubtful reputation in the St Pauli district of the port,frequented largely by sailors and others in search of amusement. By the age offifteen he had given his first solo concert as a pianist.In 1853 Brahms embarked on a concert tour with the Hungarian violinist EduardRemenyi, during the course of which he visited Liszt in Weimar, to no effect,and struck up a friendship with the violinist Joseph Joachim, through whoseagency he met the Schumanns, then established in D??sseldorf. The connection wasan important one. Schumann was impressed enough by the music Brahms played himto hail him as the long-awaited successor to Beethoven, and his subsequentbreak-down in February 1854 and ensuing insanity brought Brahms back toD??sseldorl to help Schumann's wife Clara and her young family. The relationshipwith Clara Schumann, one of the most distinguished pianists of the time, lasteduntil her death in 1896.Further concert activity and his association with Joachim and Clara Schumannallowed Brahms to meet many of the most famous musicians of the day. In 1857 hetook a temporary position at the court of Oetmold as a conductor and pianoteacher, duties that he briefly resumed again in the following two years,continuing all the time his activity as a composer and spending much of his timein Hamburg, where his ambitions were always to centre.Brahms first visited Vienna in 1862, giving concerts there and meeting duringthe course of the winter the critic Eduard Hanslick, who was to prove a doughtychampion. The following year brought appointment as conductor of the ViennaSingakademie for the season and in 1864 he again spent the winter in the city, apattern repeated in the following years until he finally took up permanentresidence there in 1869. For the rest of his life he remained a citizen ofVienna, travelling often enough to visit friends or to give concerts, andgenerally spending the summer months in the country, where he might concentrateon composition without undue disturbance. He came in some ways to occupy aposition similar to Beethoven in the musical life of the city, his notoriousrudeness generally tolerated and his bachelor habits indulged by an admiringcirc