German musician, a composer, pianist and conductor. His compositions of every type of music, except opera, are still played.
Brahms was the son of a seamstress, lame and homely, 17 years older than her husband, who lavished affection upon the boy. With a strong attachment to her until her death in 1865, Brahms cried out over her grave, “I no longer have a mother. I must marry!” His father was a double bass player who literally eked out a living playing in a cafe near Hamburg. At one time his dad tried raising chickens and rabbits, at another time, attempted business in a small shop; he even considered emigrating to America. Jakob Brahms instilled in his son a desire for bourgeois respectability and comfort, but also a restless independence. Adept as a youngster, the boy first played piano professionally at 13 in taverns near the Hamburg docks where sailors just in from long voyages came to bed down with the ladies of the town. Always courteous to prostitutes, who found him an eager if awkward lover, his caustic side was more likely to surface with society women. He like to do all the courting; if a woman showed initiative, he put her off. Though he had at least seven major, unconsummated relationships with respectable women, he slept only with prostitutes.
As a child prodigy, Brahms performed a piano concert at age 15 and gained fame during his lifetime. Even when famous, Brahms lived modestly, dressed with economy and took pride in spending little on his food. He had no extravagant tastes and even in his passion for collecting original manuscripts of great masters, observed a frugal budget. Nonetheless he loved good food and drink, and when dining with friends, enjoyed a more liberal palate.
Gruff, acerbic and orderly, he never married. He had so pedantic a love of order that he boasted that he could find anything instantly, even in the dark, of his books or his work. This acute organization stopped short at his own person. He was always hopelessly rumpled in ill fitting garments, perhaps held together with a large safety pin in places. His clothes were always in disarray whether in his closet on his body. As he matured, he cultivated a great, untidy gray beard.
His letters to his publisher show remarkable commercial astuteness, and he insisted on being paid enormous fees for his works. As conscientious as he was about his income, once in hand, he was careless about its management. Whole bundles of bank notes lay uncounted in his closet and he seldom if ever checked his bank balance. Though passionate and precise about his music, positions of conductor that were offered to him were regarded with indifference or evasion.
In his youth, Brahms declared that he could not marry and have a family as he had no money or position. However, even when he had both, marriage was not in his lexicon. He was not a misogynist as he paid homage to the fair sex by unconditional worship. He felt himself in love frequently, especially fascinated by a beautiful voice, but feeling that love would be returned, always avoided the decisive step. His solitude, privacy and independence were more important.
His closest approach to romance seems to have been his circumspect relationship, largely by correspondence, with Clara Shumann, the wife and later widow of Robert Shumann, one of Brahms earliest sponsors. He met the 14-year-older Clara when he was a handsome youth of 20, in September 1853. She was famed for her beauty and charm, the mother of seven children and deeply in love with her husband. When he played, she admired him profusely, calling him “a charming little man” to her sister. By the following year they were writing warm and encouraging letters to each other, filled with tenderness and care.
He was actually rather crusty and sharp-tongued. Once, before leaving a group of associates, he remarked, “If there is anyone here whom I’ve not insulted, I beg his pardon.” When complimented upon the resemblance of one theme to that of another excellent passage, he told a fan, “Any ass can see that.”
Two totally different sides may be seen in Brahms character, irony and reserve, coupled with genuine kindness and a readiness to help. He revered beauty, and was personally uncouth. He was a musical genius with an intense intellectual life, but he had aversions to ties of all kinds that would infringe upon his own self interests.
Brahms health began to decline in May 1896. Shocked by the death of his beloved Clara Schumann on May 20, he was further upset by missing the funeral when he took the wrong train in error. He caught a chill at the cemetery from which he never quite recovered, though it was cancer of the liver that ultimately caused his death. The old bachelor took to his bed on 3/25/1897 under the devoted care of his housekeeper, Celestine Truxa, in his Vienna lodgings for the quarter century. All day on April 2nd he lay unconscious. Early on the following morning, he turned over and two great tears rolled down his jaundiced cheeks. When he died at 10:30 AM, the burly figure had become a thin old man.
Link to Wikipedia biography