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 ...

As you listen to this richly Romantic symphony, you get a real sense that Brahms had very much hit his stride as a composer. It had taken until he was well into his forties before he felt able to ...

BOSTON - The music or the musicians? What makes a great classical music concert? You need to have captivating music for a memorable concert. But you also need musicians performing at their peak for a ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

‘It is enormously rewarding – one of the world’s grandest bracers. What a lift in those themes, and what tenderness beneath their power! Brahms for ever!’ The Third is the most personal of Brahms’s ...

The San Diego Symphony’s second season in the newly renovated Jacobs Music Center boasts monumental works, opera, a two-week Brahams festival and performances by several acclaimed opera and classical ...

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 ...