3. First maturity.

During the first half of the 1860s Brahms produced an illustrious series of chamber works (two string sextets, a piano quintet, two piano quartets, a horn trio and a cello sonata) and piano pieces (variations on themes by Schumann, Handel and Paganini), as well as numerous songs and solo vocal ensembles (including the Platen and Daumer lieder op. 32 and most of the Magelone Romances op.33), and, on the lighter side, dance music (the Waltzes op.39). Brahms's study of his musical heritage now encompassed both the larger forms and the short popular dances of Schubert. In instrumental music the imaginative Lisztian thematic transformations that had animated and unified the highly Romantic early piano sonatas were replaced by a balance of emotional and intellectual elements achieved through motivic and thematic projection (termed ‘developing variation’ by Schoenberg); bold tonal shifts and large climaxes are reminiscent of Beethoven, but long, evolving melodies and major-minor inflections recall Schubert; ländler rhythms and folkmusic drones at times introduce a popular element. The style Brahms developed during this period is in evidence for the rest of his career.

In autumn 1862 Brahms made his first trip to Vienna, where, with introductions in hand from Clara Schumann and other friends, he was rapidly accepted into the foremost musical circles and performed a series of solo and chamber concerts. His repertory included two works with special appeal for his Viennese audiences (both completed in 1861): the Handel Variations op.24, with evocations of variation sets by Bach and Beethoven, and the G minor Piano Quartet op.25, with a rondo-finale imitating the cimbalom and fiddle playing of the gypsies. Among new acquaintances were the pianist Julius Epstein, the violinist Joseph Hellmesberger (with whose string quartet Brahms performed his two piano quartets), Otto Dessoff, director of the Philharmonic Concerts, the piano maker J.B. Streicher, and the pianist Carl Tausig, with whom Brahms shared a special interest in the music of Wagner.

Brahms had long coveted the conductorship of the Hamburg Philharmonische Konzertgesellschaft, but in autumn 1862 he was passed over in favour of the baritone Julius Stockhausen (the post eluded him again in 1867). In spring 1863 he accepted the directorship of the Vienna Singakademie, which he conducted for the 1863–4 season, presenting a cappella Renaissance works; a Bach cantata, portions of another and the Christmas Oratorio; and works by Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Schumann, and pieces of his own.

In the autumn of 1862 Brahms met Wagner, who listened appreciatively to his playing of the Handel Variations. Much has been written about the differences between these two strong musical personalities; from the late 1860s Wagner wrote a number of highly critical remarks about Brahms's music. Critics such as Eduard Hanslick, having little sympathy for Wagner and his music, adopted the banner of Brahms as their standard. For his part, Brahms considered himself a supporter of Wagner, telling friends that he understood Wagner's music better than anyone. He even helped the avid Wagnerites Carl Tausig and Peter Cornelius prepare performing materials for Wagner's concerts in Vienna during the 1862–3 season; in 1870 he attended the first productions of Das Rheingold and Die Walküre in Munich. Although Brahms possessed a keen dramatic instinct and ventured to compose such works as the cantata Rinaldo and the Alto Rhapsody, he never found a libretto to his liking.

During the summer of 1864, while on vacation in Baden-Baden, Brahms became friendly with the conductor Hermann Levi, who remained one of his closest musical confidants into the mid-1870s, when their friendship foundered over personal and artistic differences. He also renewed his acquaintance with the engraver and photographer Julius Allgeyer. Allgeyer introduced him to the work of Anselm Feuerbach, whose coolly classical paintings were among Brahms's favourites. For five more summers during the years 1865–72 Brahms returned to Baden-Baden, taking rooms in the village of Lichtenthal, a short distance from the small house occupied by Clara Schumann and her family, in order to compose amidst the natural beauty of the Black Forest. In future summers he retreated to country settings in Germany, Switzerland and Austria for the same purpose.

Although Brahms continued to spend as much time as possible in Vienna, financial problems prompted him to undertake lengthy concert tours in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, Denmark and the Netherlands during the years 1865–9. His repertory was extensive, ranging from Bach to his own compositions, including works by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and Schumann, and many lesser-known pieces by Scarlatti, Couperin, Rameau, Gluck, Bach's sons and Clementi. In addition to solo concerts, he performed frequently with Joachim and, with Stockhausen, pioneered the full presentation of the song cycles of Beethoven, Schubert and Schumann.

In February 1865 Brahms was profoundly shaken by the death of his mother. Soon afterwards he worked on the German Requiem op.45, completing six movements by the end of the summer of 1866 (there is no definite evidence that the work was conceived in the 1850s after the death of Schumann or that the texts of these movements were assembled in 1861). After a performance of the first three movements in Vienna to mixed reactions on 1 December 1867 and the première of the six movements in Bremen to tumultuous applause on Good Friday 1868, a seventh movement, the soprano solo ‘Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit’, was added and the complete work received its première at the Leipzig Gewandhaus on 18 February 1869. The critical acclaim that it received and its progress through Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, England and even as far as Russia established Brahms as a composer of major significance. In 1868 he completed Rinaldo op.50, a lengthy cantata for tenor, male chorus and orchestra (on a text by Goethe) that he had begun in 1863. Other works for choir and orchestra followed: the Alto Rhapsody op.53 (1869, also Goethe), a personal response to the marriage of Julie Schumann, for whom Brahms had secretly harboured an affection; the Schicksalslied op.54 (completed 1871, Hölderlin); the Triumphlied op.55 (1870–71, biblical texts), an expression of strong patriotic feelings after the German victory in the Franco-Prussian War and dedicated to Emperor Wilhelm I; and later Nänie op.82 (completed 1881, Schiller) and Gesang der Parzen op.89 (1882, Goethe), the former a response to the premature death of Feuerbach.

Brahms also continued to work in the intimate genres. In 1868 he supplemented the songs gathering in his portfolio since at least 1856 to issue five collections totalling 25 songs (opp.43, 46–9). The Liebeslieder Walzer op.52 (1869, on lyrics by Georg Friedrich Daumer, one of Brahms's favourite poets) express the joyous expectation of love fulfilled; the Lieder und Gesänge op.57 (1871, also on poems by Daumer) is perhaps his most sensual collection of songs. Such pieces as the piano waltzes op.39, the Liebeslieder Walzer, the first two books of Hungarian Dances, and the Wiegenlied op.49 no.4 endeared Brahms to music-making amateurs.

During the 1860s Brahms's affections were captured by several young women. As well as his infatuation with Julie Schumann in 1869, he had almost proposed to Ottilie Hauer, a Viennese girl with whom he spent many hours in 1863 reading Schubert's songs and his own; and his attraction to Elisabet Stockhausen (later married to the composer Heinrich von Herzogenberg) was so strong that he withdrew from giving her piano lessons. In the end, though, he maintained his personal freedom, in the service of his musical aspirations. His father's case was quite different: a little over a year after his wife's death, he married Caroline Schnack, a widow 18 years his junior. Brahms appreciated her care of his father and respected her as he had his own mother, and in later years provided her with regular financial assistance.

Brahms, Johannes