Johannes Brahms, the composer of "A German Requiem," four symphonies, four concertos, and many songs, piano pieces, and chamber works, was one of the seminal musical figures of the 19th century. Opera was the only major musical medium in which he did not write. He was an ardent admirer of Schubert and Schumann and a true son of the romantic era. Love of folk song, tenderness of expression, and a tendency toward vague twilight moods characterize his music. He was one of the great masters of the German Lied and of the romantic short piano vignette. However, a striving for clear structures and established forms also asserted itself in his music. Brahms was a perfectionist and destroyed some of his works that did not satisfy him.
Unlike his great contemporaries Wagner and Liszt, he was not interested in music for the stage or in programmatic works that expressed pictorial ideas or poetical stories with the help of musical sounds. He showed a decided preference for chamber music and symphonic compositions ruled by purely musical concepts.
Brahms was born in Hamburg, Germany on May 7, 1833. He began to study the piano at age seven under the tutelage of his father. He spent most of his professional life in Vienna, Austria where de died on April 3, 1897.
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