The young Brahms

Brahms. No consideration of Western art music proceeds for very long without acknowledging our debt to this towering figure. His presence, Jovian and paternal, comes through in the iconic photos as well as in his music: we see and hear a stern Olympian. We forget however that even the great (perhaps, especially the great) were once young and hopeful.

Throughout his young life, Brahms had important advocates, none more so than Clara Wieck Schumann, the great female piano virtuoso of her age. She and her husband, composer Robert Schumann, believed powerfully in the young Brahms. After Robert's death, Clara continued as Johannes's closest friend and confidante.

The inherently archival nature of Western art music, beginning in the mid-19th century, owes much of its identity to such continuity. Our contemporary composers internalize this canon, coming to terms with it even as they choose, perhaps, to reject it. One understands the mentality of young people who are innocent of the tradition. What, though, does one make of concert-goers whose tastes are exclusively modern? "I don't care for anything before ____." Fill in the blank...1918; Shostakovich; Stockhausen?

Even the greats were once young and impressionable.

Photos: Johannes Brahms (1833-1897); Clara Wieck Schumann (1819-1896); the young Brahms.