Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

Even as a young child of ten, Brahms played the piano for money in the bars and brothels of his native Hamburg. During this time, a prominent violinist, Joseph Joachim, befriended the young Brahms and arranged for him to meet Robert and Clara Schumann. This meeting was a defining moment in Brahms' life. Schumann immediately recognized the young pianist’s ability and charisma and offered him direction and support. Clara, a brilliant pianist and composer in her own right, also became a guiding force in Brahms’ life.

His greatest contribution to the choral repertoire is his masterpiece, A German Requiem (1868), a seven-movement work with text from the German Bible. The Requiem is not in the same vein as Mozart’s or Berlioz’ setting of the traditional Latin text, but rather a highly personal work created to memorialize his mother. In contrast to the Dies irae (Day of Wrath) text found in the Latin version, the texts are meant to console and to illustrate the redemptive power of death. In the peaceful fifth movement, Brahms shows a masterful treatment of harmony that shifts through unexpected keys and cadences. In his later choral works, as evidenced in his motet Der Heilland Reiss, Brahms experimented with modal harmonies and canonic structures.

It is in his chamber and symphonic music that his traditional tendencies become most apparent. The Piano Quintet, Op. 34 (1864) illustrates a feature common to many of Brahms’ compositions: a complex texture or ‘thickness’ that comes from the composer’s interest in thematic integration.

In his chamber music and symphonies, Brahms is the true descendent and inheritor of the “Beethoven tradition.” Extremely self-critical, Brahms was hesitant to finish his first symphony because he felt an overwhelming responsibility to match Beethoven’s symphonic greatness. Thus, his First Symphony, one of only four that he composed, was not completed until 1876. All four symphonies, however, are massive achievements in the genre, unparalleled in scope and execution, in perfect Classical form. The final movement of the Fourth Symphony in E minor is a passacaglia with 32 variations. A work based on such a demanding form would be daunting to most composers. In the hands of Brahms, however, it is one of the most compelling movements in the symphonic repertoire.

Unlike the opera/music dramas of German composers such as Weber and Wagner, or French composers like Berlioz and Bizet, Verdi’s works, even in his late operas, retain the typical Italian forms of chorus, aria, recitative, and ensemble. While the dramatic aspect of his operas becomes increasingly important, it remains subservient to the melodic line and traditional form, allowing the aria, recitative, and ensemble to maintain a sense of completeness. The independence of such musical numbers can be heard in the recitative Ebben? Che diavol fate? from La Traviata, the famous aria La donna e mobile from Rigoletto, and the duet, Desdemona rea, si, per ciel, that closes the first act of Otello.

Peter Illych Tchaikovsky (1840-93)