Musical selection  dedicated to Johannes Brahms 120th memorial anniversary" is posted in our Sound Library.

Brahms life story can be narrated as a fascinating novel, the main plot of which comprise Brahms’s acquaintanceship with his creative and unconventional contemporaries. These ties and relations played a remarkable role in the development of his talent and determined the life of the composer in many aspects.
Thus, for example, his juvenile friendship with the Hungarian violinist Ede Reményi eventually developed into a creative union. They performed on tours all over Europe. Brahms was an accompanist, and Reményi played his favorite Hungarian tunes. It was just then that Brahms was sincerely and forever subdued by folk music, and his creative heritage was soon supplemented by bright and expressive "Hungarian dances".

Another friend of young Johannes, the famous violin virtuoso Josef Joachim introduced twenty-year-old Brahms to the famous and successful composer Robert Schumann in 1853. This meeting turned out to be a life-changing event. Shortly Robert Schumann wrote in his article "The New Ways": "I knew ... and hoped that He was coming. He, who is called to become an ideal exponent of our time. He, whose skill is not springing from the ground by timid sprouts, but immediately blooms in lush colours. Moreover, he appeared, a bright young man, Gracias and Heroes rocked his cradle. His name is Johannes Brahms”. Thanks to the authoritative recognition and support of Schumann, young Brahms became famous in the European musical community.

There is another story - the acquaintance of Brahms with Clara Wieck, a talented pianist, teacher and ... the wife of Robert Schumann. Clara Wieck wrote about her meeting with Brahms: "He stood in front of us as the God's messenger. He played his own compositions, full of immense imagination, sincerity and skill. Robert could not give him any recommendations, since all that he created was done perfectly". The names of those talented musicians - Johannes Brahms, Robert Schumann and Clara Wieck will always stand side by side in the history of music. Nowadays, the audience has an opportunity to become familiar with the storm of feelings and emotions that those outstanding creative personalities lived through, being involved in the complicated psychological triangle. It was the period, when Brahms's creative work was generously filled with new forms; he gushed with ideas and created a lot.

To Johannes Brahms memorial day, which is celebrated on April 3, we prepared a thematic musical selection featuring the first part of the 3rd symphony, the violin concerto in D-major and the first piano and orchestra concerto in D- minor. The first piano concerto presented in our selection was created shortly after Schumann's death, at the time when Brahms was supporting his widow, Clara Wieck in every possible way. This concert is exciting from the musical point of view by the fact that all its three parts are a sincere and precise expression of Brahms' inner feelings connected with the teacher’s loss and emotional concern about his close friend. You will have an opportunity to listen to a rare recording of the Brahms violin concert performed by one of the most brilliant artists of the 20th century, Jascha Heifetz in our selection.