early works, of which the Scherzo op. 4 is the most significant.
Brahms was extraordinarily precocious and during these for-
mative years manifested a trait which is noticeable throughout
his career—that of knowing exactly what end he had in view
and of setting to work quickly and steadily to attain it. Fi-
nally in 1853, when he was twenty, he was invited to participate
in the memorable concert-tour with the Hungarian Violinist Re-
menyi, which was the cause of his being brought before the pub-
lic under the auspices of three such sponsors as Schumann, Liszt
and Joachim. It seems that, at one of the concerts in a small
town, the pianoforte was a semitone too low, whereupon young
Brahms transposed at sight a difficult Beethoven Sonata into
the requisite higher key. This remarkable feat of musicianship
so impressed Joachim, who was in the audience, that he gave
Brahms two letters of introduction—one to Liszt at Weimar and
one to Schumann at Düsseldorf on the Rhine. Following up these
letters, Brahms now spent six weeks at Weimar with Liszt, as-
similating important points of method and style. Although the
two natures were somewhat unsympathetic, Liszt was so im-
pressed with the creative power and character of Brahms’s first
compositions, that he tried to adopt him as an adherent of the
advanced school of modern music; while Brahms was led, as
some would claim, through Liszt’s influence to an appreciation
of the artistic effects to be found in Hungarian music. Brahms’s
visit to Schumann in the autumn of 1853 was in its consequences
a significant incident. After hearing Brahms’s music, Schumann
wrote for the “Neue Zeitschrift” an article entitled “Neue Bah-
nen” ("New Paths”) in which the young composer was heralded
as the master for whom the world had been waiting, the succes-
sor of Beethoven in the symphonic style. Through Schumann’s
influence, the publishers Breitkopf and Härtel at once brought
out Brahms’s first works, which were by no means received by
the public with general favor; in fact they provoked as bitter
discussion as those of Wagner, and made headway slowly. For
four years—from 1854 to 1858—Brahms was in the service of
the Prince of Lippe-Detmold, a small principality near Hanover,
where the court was a quiet one, thus affording ample time for
composition and private study. Brahms’s strength of purpose
and unusual power of self-criticism are shown by the way in
which this period was spent. Although he had made a brilliant
début, Brahms now imposed upon himself a course of rigorous
technical training, appeared seldom before the public and pub-
ann
(Ann)
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