Johannes Brahms

• At the age of ten Johannes Brahms became known as a child prodigy at the piano in his hometown of Hamburg
• Early works composed by 1853 include two Piano Sonatas (op.1 and 2)
• On a concert tour, he met Schumann in Düsseldorf, who declared Brahms to be he "who was bound to come"
• Failed with the first performance of his first "symphonic" Piano Concerto in Leipzig in 1859
• Afterwards he composed Piano Quartets op.25 and 26, Piano Quintet op.34
• From the fifties onwards he wrote numerous quartets, quintets and sextets for various instruments
• From 1863, director of the Wiener Singakademie, 1872-75 directed the concerts of the Wiener Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde
• In Vienna, composition of the _Paganini Variations op.35, Symphony No.1, cantata-like choral compositions such as Triumphlied and Deutsches Requiem
• 1877-79 Symphony No.2, Violin Sonata and Violin Concerto
• 1883-85 Symphony No.3 and Symphony No.4
• In his final years he wrote a number of chamber-music works (piano, clarinet) and songs.

Works by Johannes Brahms include:
Haydn Variations op.56 (1873) for orchestra
Violin Concerto op.77 (1877-78)
Symphony No.4 op.98 (1884-85)
Schicksalslied (Song of Destiny) op.54 (1871) for chorus and orchestra

"...once begun I never cool down over a work until it is perfected, unassailable." — Johannes Brahms