Research

Brahms in the Home

International Conference 4-6 November 2011 

What is Brahms in the Home?

Between 2-8 November 2011, the RCM brings together international performers and scholars for
a week of concerts and discussion to celebrate the rich world of domestic music-making in Brahms’s circle. Through performances of Brahms's arrangements of his own works, as well as rarely-heard works by his contemporaries, this week of events showcases not only the music, but its performance space: the private home.

Prior to the advent of recording technology, performing music at home was the main means
of getting to know new repertoire, and sharing it with friends during convivial evenings. Virtually anyone could sing songs at home; more able musicians tackled large chamber works, and pianists acquainted themselves with the symphonic repertoire through abundant arrangements and transcriptions for four hands. Composers like Brahms often produced those arrangements themselves, thus commercially benefiting from this vast market.

Aside from these amateur performers, professional musicians gave many performances of more complex repertoire in their friends' homes. Private houses provided an unthreatening environment in which to test-run new works and rehearse for concerts prior to exposure to the public gaze. Thus, the private home served several different, equally important functions within the world of nineteenth-century music.

Brahms and his friends 

Private performances of music to interested friends played an essential role in Brahms's professional success from his youngest days. As a twenty-year-old, Brahms first played his music to Robert and Clara Schumann in their home in Dusseldorf in September 1853. This performance played a
central role in the launching of Brahms's career, inspiring Robert Schumann's historic article New Paths ('Neue Bahnen'), which propelled Brahms to international fame.

Once established in Vienna, private concerts were
a constant feature of Brahms's life, combining friendship with professional opportunities in the most intimate forum. Brahms's vast correspondence testifies to the closeness of these friendships, for example with Elisabeth von Herzogenberg and her husband the composer Heinrich; the surgeon and amateur violinist Theodor Billroth; and Maria Fellinger, the wife of the industrialist Richard Fellinger. Even at the end of the century, private performances remained a vital forum within which to test out new works, rehearse for public concerts, and - crucially - simply enjoy listening to friends make music.