Johannes Brahms (1833 - 1897)

Piano Concerto No.1 in D minor, Op. 15
Robert Schumann (1810- 1856)
Concert-Allegro with Introduction, Op. 134

Johannes Brahms was born in Hamburg in 1833, the son of a double-bass player and his much older wife, a seamstress. His childhood was spent in relative poverty, and his early studies in music, for which be showed a natural aptitude, developed his talent to such an extent that there was talk of tollring as a prodigy at the age of eleven. It was Eduard Marxsen who gave him a grounding in the technical basis of composition, while the boy helped his family by playing the piano in dockside taverns.

In 1851 Brahms met the emigre Hungarian violinist Remenyi, who introduced him to Hungarian dance music. Two years later be set out in his company on his first concert tour, their journey taking them, on the recommendation of the Hungarian violinist Joachim, to Weimar, where Franz Liszt held court and might have been expec