Brahms, Johannes, 1833-1897

Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist. Brahms composed for piano, chamber ensembles, symphony orchestra, and for voice and chorus. A virtuoso pianist, he premiered many of his own works; he worked with some of the leading performers of his time, including the pianist Clara Schumann and the violinist Joseph Joachim. Brahms aimed to honour the "purity" of these venerable "German" structures and advance them into a Romantic idiom, in the process creating bold new approaches to harmony and melody. The diligent, highly constructed nature of Brahms's works was a starting point and an inspiration for a generation of composers. Image and Bio retrieved Nov 2014: © All rights reserved, Wikipedia