Johannes Brahms was one of the romantic period's most conflicted musical characters, and his symphonies are the perfect way to find out why... The image of Brahms the curmudgeon with his hands firmly ...

When Beethoven wrote his massive Ninth Symphony, he left some pretty big shoes for subsequent composers to fill. As Johannes Brahms famously put it: “You can’t have any idea what it’s like always to ...

Beethoven’s Symphony No.9 was – and still is – an undisputed masterwork. Audiences went wild for it; critics asked whether it could ever be equalled; and frankly, composers such as Brahms wondered ...

Four concerts, eight symphonies, two great composers. Under the direction of Alondra de la Parra, the Munich Symphony Orchestra interprets works by Johannes Brahms and Antonín Dvořák. The highlights ...

When I was hired as a classical producer at Colorado Public Radio in the late 90's, I came with a rock and roll and jazz background. I remember asking one of the ...

One of the best features of Tuesday’s music-making was the old-fashioned layout of the orchestra. With the violins divided and cellos, basses, and violas in the middle, they had an outsized weight and ...

Audio for this feature is no longer available. The album was released on Oct. 6, 2009. "It's an unkickable drug habit. And I'm happy to be a junkie until the end of my days." So says 54-year-old ...

A photo of Brahms from 1876, the year he composed his "Symphony no. 1", taken from his personal photo collection. Led by Sir Gilbert Levine, the concert celebrated the canonization of two recent Popes ...

Johannes Brahms is not known for his sense of humour, but his Second Symphony is downright funny. Its lilting themes and exuberant turns have given it a reputation as a "pastoral" symphony (the kind ...

Stephen Johnson explores Brahms's Symphony No. 1, which took the composer around 20 years to compose. While Brahms strove to create his own unique sound, critics pounced upon it. Show more Stephen ...

The character of the Fourth Symphony has been described as autumnal. Even if it weren't the last of Brahms' symphonies, the description would fit, for surely none of the others presents the same ...

Johannes Brahms' beautiful, deeply personal symphony. Johannes Brahms expressed his own enigmatic motto, “free but happy,” in musical symbols that weave throughout this beautiful, deeply personal ...