Deutche Sprache

The two piano concertos by Johannes Brahms occupy an uncontested place in the pantheon of the greatest works of this genre. At the same time they play a unique role in the development of the concerto form in the 19th century, particularly in view of their uneven history of reception. When the young Brahms started out searching the limelight in the early 1850s with his first major composition he was facing a musical world torn apart by ideological wars about questions of form, harmony, and the role of programme music. In this decade, two irreconcilable parties emerged, on one side the so-called "conservatives" who centre was the Leipzig Conservatory (founded by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy), with figureheads like Clara Schumann and Joseph Joachim, on the other side the group of self-proclaimed "heralds of the future" led by Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner who would become known as the "Neudeutsche Schule" in 1859, a term coined by Franz Brendel.

The two piano concertos by Johannes Brahms occupy an uncontested place in the pantheon of the greatest works of this genre. At the same time they play a unique role in the development of the concerto form in the 19th century, particularly in view of their uneven history of reception. When the young Brahms started out searching the limelight in the early 1850s with his first major composition he was facing a musical world torn apart by ideological wars about questions of form, harmony, and the role of programme music. In this decade, two irreconcilable parties emerged, on one side the so-called "conservatives" who centre was the Leipzig Conservatory (founded by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy), with figureheads like Clara Schumann and Joseph Joachim, on the other side the group of self-proclaimed "heralds of the future" led by Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner who would become known as the "Neudeutsche Schule" in 1859, a term coined by Franz Brendel.

The two piano concertos by Johannes Brahms occupy an uncontested place in the pantheon of the greatest works of this genre. At the same time they play a unique role in the development of the concerto form in the 19th century, particularly in view of their uneven history of reception. When the young Brahms started out searching the limelight in the early 1850s with his first major composition he was facing a musical world torn apart by ideological wars about questions of form, harmony, and the role of programme music. In this decade, two irreconcilable parties emerged, on one side the so-called "conservatives" who centre was the Leipzig Conservatory (founded by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy), with figureheads like Clara Schumann and Joseph Joachim, on the other side the group of self-proclaimed "heralds of the future" led by Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner who would become known as the "Neudeutsche Schule" in 1859, a term coined by Franz Brendel.