JOHANNES BRAHMS
THE GOLDEN BOY
Charmer. Loner. Curmudgeon. Jokester. A man of great complexity, of great contrasts. Tender and generous one moment, ruthless and self-indulgent the next. Quick-witted and mischievous, somber and reclusive. Sensitive, touchy, irascible, gregarious. And for as social an animal as he was, as an admirer of the world, it’s beauty, and its women, he lived behind barricades — of silence, sarcasm, flight, and especially music. But three forces propelled him: his will to devote his life towards the single goal of composing music; his utter integrity and inability to be false; and his enduring, lifelong love for Clara Schumann, the wife of his mentor.
CLARA SCHUMANN
THE PRODIGY
Brilliant. Driven. Work-obsessed. Anguished. The most remarkable woman in the history of music. Piano virtuoso, teacher, composer, and editor. A prodigy from birth, Clara was forced by her domineering father to trade her childhood for performing. At twenty-one, she married Robert Schumann. Sixteen years later, she was widowed. Yet, she built a phenomenal career that she alone managed, filling concert halls from London to St. Petersburg, performing more than any living artist of the time. And she did it all while raising eight children, burying four, supporting a mentally ill husband, playing in great physical agony, and dealing with the constant emotional pain of loving Johannes Brahms, a man incapable of giving his heart away.
ROBERT SCHUMANN
THE POET
Scholarly. Literate. Romantic. Adoring. Schumann found inspiration in the things and the people he loved most. And the one he loved most was his wife, Clara. He idolized her from the moment they met, when he was 16. As they grew, so did their passion for each another. But Schumann took his passions to extremes. He experimented sexually, overindulged in alcohol, and suffered from bipolar personality. Yet he was astoundingly prolific, writing compulsively in periods of manic inspiration. It served him well until the end, when that mania drove him to attempt suicide. He would spend the last two years of his life locked in a sanitarium, separated from Clara, his children, his music, his mind. A tragic ending to the brightest light of 19th century music. The living intersection of genius and madness.
JOSEPH JOACHIM
THE BEST FRIEND
Virtuoso violinist, composer, teacher, and conductor, Joachim met Brahms when Brahms was still unknown, and remained his closest friend all their lives. Their friendship went through several schisms, due mostly to Joachim's insecurity and paranoia, and Brahms's inability to placate or lie. A Hungarian Jew, Joachim was considered the most important violinist of the 19th century. Brahms composed his violin works alongside Joachim for him to play exclusively. He, Brahms, and Clara were the best of friends, spending much of their life traveling and performing together, supporting one another in their musical as well as their emotional life.
FRANZ LISZT
THE ROCK STAR
Ego unbound. The most famous concert superstar of the 19th century. Adulated throughout Europe, from Ireland to Russia. A composer of enormous innovation. A leading figure of the Romantic movement who eventually became a leading voice of the New German school, which pushed music toward Modernism. This made Liszt a controversial figure. He played brilliantly, with great, often eye-rolling flourish. He had numerous mistresses. He was close friends with Chopin (until they became rivals), with Wagner (until they became rivals), and with Brahms (until they became rivals). But his influence on them, and every other composer who followed, is legendary.