Johannes Brahms, composer

Born: May 7, 1833 in Hamburg, Germany

Died: April 3, 1897 in Vienna

Education: began taking lessons in piano, cello and horn as a child; within a few years he was accepted to study piano and music theory for free by Eduard Marxsen, one of Hamburg’s leading teachers

The Schumanns: with an introductory letter from his friend Joseph Joachim, Brahms arrived on the doorstep of Robert and Clara Schumann; they immediately recognized his talent, championing him in the press writing letters of recommendation to present to publishers; after Robert’s death, Brahms remained lifelong friends with Clara

Important Works: Four symphonies, two piano concertos, Handel Variations, G minor Piano Quartet, Ein Deutsches Requiem, Rinaldo, Alto Rhapsody, Liebeslieder Walzer, Variations on a Theme by Haydn, Clarinet Trio, Four Serious Songs

Performer: an accomplished pianist who often performed the premieres of his own compositions; occasionally went on long concert tours to supplement his income

Known as: both a traditionalist and an innovator; believed in absolute music as opposed to the programmatic music of contemporaries Liszt, Berlioz and Wagner

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Henryk Mikolaj Górecki, composer

Born: December 6, 1933 in Czernica, Poland

Died: November 12, 2010 in Katowice, Poland

Education: while his parents were amateur musicians, he was not allowed to take music as a child; eventually began violin lessons and studied composition with Boleslaw Szabelski at the Music Academy in Katowice

Awards: 1st prize at the 1961 UNESCO Youth Biennale for his First Symphony; 1st prize at the 1973 UNESCO Composers’ Rostrum for Do Matki; received the Order of the White Eagle, Poland’s highest honor

Commissions: received 1st foreign commission for Refren; two West German Radio Commissions: Canticum Graduum and the Symphony of Sorrowful Songs; Lerchenborg Festival; Already it is Dusk commissioned by Kronos Quartet; Beatus Vir commissioned by Cardinal Wojtyla in 1977 (Pope John Paul II); Epitatium commissioned by Warsaw Anthem Festival

Fame: largely unknown outside Poland until the 1980s, he finally gained worldwide fame in the 1990s when David Zinman conducted Dawn Upshaw and London Sinfonietta in a recording of Symphony of Sorrowful Songs, which became a worldwide phenomenon

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