Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op. 115; String Quartet No. 3 in B flat major, Op. 67

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 he showed a natural aptitude, developed his talent to such an extent that there was talk of touring as a prodigy at the age of eleven. It was Eduard Marxsen who gave him a grounding in the technical basis of composition, while as an adolescent he was able to earn some money by playing the piano for private and public entertainment and by teaching, gradually winning a local reputation as a performer.

In 1851 Brahms met the émigré Hungarian violinist Reményi, who introduced him to Hungarian dance music that had a later influence on his work. Two years later he set out in his company on a concert tour, their journey taking them, on the