Johannes Brahms

Johannes Brahms (pronounced [joːˈhanəs ˈbʁaːms]; 7 May 1833  – 3 April 1897) was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene. In his lifetime, Brahms's popularity and influence were considerable; following a comment by the nineteenth-century conductor Hans von Bülow, he is sometimes grouped with Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven as one of the Three Bs.

Brahms composed for piano, chamber ensembles, symphony orchestra, and for voice and chorus. A virtuoso pianist, he premiered many of his own works; he also worked with some of the leading performers of his time, including the pianist Clara Schumann and the violinist Joseph Joachim. Many of his works have become staples of the modern concert repertoire. Brahms, an uncompromising perfectionist, destroyed many of his works and left some of them unpublished.^[1]

Brahms is often considered both a traditionalist and an innovator. His music is firmly rooted in the structures and compositional techniques of the Baroque and Classical masters. He was a master of counterpoint, the complex and highly disciplined art for which Johann Sebastian Bach is famous, and also of development, a compositional ethos pioneered by Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven. Brahms aimed to honour the "purity" of these venerable "German" structures and advance them into a Romantic idiom, in the process creating bold new approaches to harmony and melody. While many contemporaries found his music too academic, his contribution and craftsmanship have been admired by subsequent figures as diverse as Arnold Schoenberg and Edward Elgar. The diligent, highly constructed nature of Brahms's works was a starting point and an inspiration for a generation of composers.

Life[link]

Early years[link]

Brahms's father, Johann Jakob Brahms (1806–72), came to Hamburg from Dithmarschen, seeking a career as a town musician. He was proficient in several instruments, but found employment mostly playing the horn and double bass. In 1830, he married Johanna Henrika Christiane Nissen (1789–1865), a seamstress never previously married, who was seventeen years older than he was. Johannes Brahms had an older sister and a younger brother. Initially, they lived near the city docks, in the Gängeviertel quarter of Hamburg, for six months, before moving to a small house on the Dammtorwall, a small city in the Inner Alster.

Photograph from 1891 of the building in Hamburg where Brahms was born. Brahms's family occupied part of the first floor, behind the two double windows on the left hand side. The building was destroyed by bombing in 1943.

Johann Jakob gave his son his first musical training. He studied piano from the age of seven with Otto Friedrich Willibald Cossel. Owing to the family's poverty, as a boy Brahms played in dance halls and brothels – some of the seediest places in Hamburg – surrounded by drunken sailors and prostitutes that often fondled the boy as he played.^{[citation needed]} Early biographers found this shocking and played down this portion of his life. Modern writers have pointed to this as a reason for Brahms's later inability to have a successful relationship for marriage, etc., his view of women being warped by his experiences.^[2] Recently, Brahms scholars Styra Avins^[3] and Kurt Hoffman have suggested that this legend is false. Since Brahms himself clearly originated the story, however, some have questioned Hoffman's theory.^[4][5]

For a time, Brahms also learned the cello.^[6] After his early piano lessons with Otto Cossel, Brahms studied piano with Eduard Marxsen, who had studied in Vienna with Ignaz von Seyfried (a pupil of Mozart) and Carl Maria von Bocklet (a close friend of Schubert). The young Brahms gave a few public concerts in Hamburg, but did not become well known as a pianist until he made a concert tour at the age of nineteen. (In later life, he frequently took part in the performance of his own works, whether as soloist, accompanist, or participant in chamber music.) He conducted choirs from his early teens, and became a proficient choral and orchestral conductor.

Meeting Joachim and Liszt[link]

Brahms in 1853

He began to compose quite early in life, but later destroyed most copies of his first works; for instance, Louise Japha, a fellow-pupil of Marxsen, reported a piano sonata, that Brahms had played or improvised at the age of 11, had been destroyed. His compositions did not receive public acclaim until he went on a concert tour as accompanist to the Hungarian violinist Eduard Reményi in April and May 1853. On this tour he met Joseph Joachim at Hanover, and went on to the Court of Weimar where he met Franz Liszt, Peter Cornelius, and Joachim Raff. According to several witnesses of Brahms's meeting with Liszt (at which Liszt performed Brahms's Scherzo, Op. 4, at sight), Reményi was offended by Brahms's failure to praise Liszt's Sonata in B minor wholeheartedly (Brahms supposedly fell asleep during a performance of the recently composed work), and they parted company shortly afterwards. Brahms later excused himself, saying that he could not help it, having been exhausted by his travels.

Brahms and Schumann[link]

Joachim had given Brahms a letter of introduction to Robert Schumann, and after a walking tour in the Rhineland, Brahms took the train to Düsseldorf, and was welcomed into the Schumann family on arrival there. Schumann, amazed by the 20-year-old's talent, published an article entitled "Neue Bahnen" (New Paths) in the 28 October 1853 issue of the journal Neue Zeitschrift für Musik alerting the public to the young man, who, he claimed, was "destined to give ideal expression to the times."^[7] This pronouncement was received with some scepticism outside of Schumann's immediate circle, and may have increased Brahms's naturally self-critical need to perfect his works and technique. While he was in Düsseldorf, Brahms participated with Schumann and Albert Dietrich in writing a sonata for Joachim; this is known as the "F–A–E Sonata" (German: Frei aber einsam). He became very attached to Schumann's wife, the composer and pianist Clara, fourteen years his senior, with whom he would carry on a lifelong, emotionally passionate relationship. Brahms never married, despite strong feelings for several women and despite entering into an engagement, soon broken off, with Agathe von Siebold in Göttingen in 1859. After Schumann's attempted suicide and subsequent confinement in a mental sanatorium near Bonn in February 1854, Brahms was the main intercessor between Clara and her husband, and found himself virtually head of the household.

After Schumann's death, Brahms hurried to Düsseldorf and for the next two years lived in an apartment above the Schumann's house, and sacrificed his career and his art for Clara's sake. The question of Brahms and Clara Schumann is perhaps the most mysterious in music history, alongside that of Beethoven's "Immortal Beloved". Whether they were actually lovers is unknown, but their destruction of their letters to each other may point to something beyond mere privacy.^[8]

Detmold and Hamburg[link]

After Schumann's death at the sanatorium in 1856, Brahms divided his time between Hamburg, where he formed and conducted a ladies' choir, and Detmold in the Principality of Lippe, where he was court music-teacher and conductor. He was the soloist at the premiere of his Piano Concerto No. 1 in 1859. He first visited Vienna in 1862, staying there over the winter, and, in 1863, was appointed conductor of the Vienna Singakademie. Though he resigned the position the following year, and entertained the idea of taking up conducting posts elsewhere, he based himself increasingly in Vienna and soon made his home there. From 1872 to 1875, he was director of the concerts of the Vienna Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde; afterwards, he accepted no formal position. He declined an honorary doctorate of music from University of Cambridge in 1877, but accepted one from the University of Breslau in 1879, and composed the Academic Festival Overture as a gesture of appreciation.

He had been composing steadily throughout the 1850s and 60s, but his music had evoked divided critical responses, and the Piano Concerto No. 1 had been badly received in some of its early performances. His works were labelled old-fashioned by the 'New German School' whose principal figures included Liszt and Richard Wagner. Brahms admired some of Wagner's music and admired Liszt as a great pianist, but the conflict between the two schools, known as the War of the Romantics, soon embroiled all of musical Europe. In the Brahms camp were his close friends: Clara Schumann, the influential music critic Eduard Hanslick, and the leading Viennese surgeon Theodor Billroth. In 1860, Brahms attempted to organise a public protest against some of the wilder excesses of the Wagnerians' music. This took the form of a manifesto, written by Brahms and Joachim jointly. The manifesto, which was published prematurely with only three supporting signatures, was a failure, and he never engaged in public polemics again.^[9]

Years of popularity[link]

It was the premiere of A German Requiem, his largest choral work, in Bremen, in 1868, that confirmed Brahms's European reputation and led many to accept that he had conquered Beethoven and the symphony. This may have given him the confidence finally to complete a number of works that he had wrestled with over many years, such as the cantata Rinaldo, his first string quartet, third piano quartet, and most notably his first symphony. This appeared in 1876, though it had been begun (and a version of the first movement seen by some of his friends) in the early 1860s. The other three symphonies then followed in 1877, 1883, and 1885. From 1881, he was able to try out his new orchestral works with the court orchestra of the Duke of Meiningen, whose conductor was Hans von Bülow. He was the soloist at the premiere of his Piano Concerto No. 2 in 1881, in Pest.

Brahms frequently travelled, both for business (concert tours) and pleasure. From 1878 onwards, he often visited Italy in the springtime, and he usually sought out a pleasant rural location in which to compose during the summer. He was a great walker and especially enjoyed spending time in the open air, where he felt that he could think more clearly.

Brahms's grave in the Zentralfriedhof (Central Cemetery), Vienna.

In 1889, one Theo Wangemann, a representative of American inventor Thomas Edison, visited the composer in Vienna and invited him to make an experimental recording. Brahms played an abbreviated version of his first Hungarian dance on the piano. The recording was later issued on an LP of early piano performances (compiled by Gregor Benko). Although the spoken introduction to the short piece of music is quite clear, the piano playing is largely inaudible due to heavy surface noise. Nevertheless, this remains the earliest recording made by a major composer. Analysts and scholars remain divided, however, as to whether the voice that introduces the piece is that of Wangemann or of Brahms.^[10] Several attempts have been made to improve the quality of this historic recording; a "denoised" version was produced at Stanford University which claims to solve the mystery.^[11]

In 1889, Brahms was named an honorary citizen of Hamburg, until 1948 the only one born in Hamburg.^[12]

Later years[link]

In 1890, the 57-year-old Brahms resolved to give up composing. However, as it turned out, he was unable to abide by his decision, and in the years before his death he produced a number of acknowledged masterpieces. His admiration for Richard Mühlfeld, clarinetist with the Meiningen orchestra, moved him to compose the Clarinet Trio, Op. 114, Clarinet Quintet, Op. 115 (1891), and the two Clarinet Sonatas, Op. 120 (1894). He also wrote several cycles of piano pieces, Opp. 116–119, the Vier ernste Gesänge (Four Serious Songs), Op. 121 (1896), and the Eleven Chorale Preludes for organ, Op. 122 (1896).

While completing the Op. 121 songs, Brahms developed cancer (sources differ on whether this was of the liver or pancreas). His condition gradually worsened and he died on 3 April 1897, aged 63. Brahms is buried in the Zentralfriedhof in Vienna.

Tributes[link]

Later that year, the British composer Hubert Parry, who considered Brahms the greatest artist of the time, wrote an orchestral Elegy for Brahms. This was never played in Parry's lifetime, receiving its first performance at a memorial concert for Parry himself in 1918.

Music of Brahms[link]

	Intermezzo, Op. 116, No. 4 Intermezzo, Op. 117, No. 1 Intermezzo, Op. 117, No. 2 Intermezzo, Op. 117, No. 3 Intermezzo, Op. 76, No. 7
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Double Concerto in A minor, 2nd movement Double Concerto in A minor, 3rd movement Cello Sonata in F, Op. 99, 1st movement Cello Sonata in F, Op. 99, 2nd movement Cello Sonata in F, Op. 99, 3rd movement Cello Sonata in F, Op. 99, 4th movement Wiegenlied (Op. 49) Ernestine Schumann-Heink (1915)

Brahms plays his Hungarian Dance No. 1 Hungarian Dance No. 1 Recorded on 2 December 1889

Works[link]

Brahms wrote a number of major works for orchestra, including two serenades, four symphonies, two piano concertos (No. 1 in D minor; No. 2 in B-flat major), a Violin Concerto, a Double Concerto for violin and cello, and two companion orchestral overtures, the Academic Festival Overture and the Tragic Overture.

His large choral work A German Requiem is not a setting of the liturgical Missa pro defunctis but a setting of texts which Brahms selected from the Lutheran Bible. The work was composed in three major periods of his life. An early version of the second movement was first composed in 1854, not long after Robert Schumann's attempted suicide, and this was later used in his first piano concerto. The majority of the Requiem was composed after his mother's death in 1865. The fifth movement was added after the official premiere in 1868, and the work was published in 1869.

Brahms's works in variation form include, among others, the Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel and the Paganini Variations, both for solo piano, and the Variations on a Theme by Haydn (now sometimes called the Saint Anthony Variations) in versions for two pianos and for orchestra. The final movement of the Fourth Symphony, Op. 98, is formally a passacaglia.

His chamber works include three string quartets, two string quintets, two string sextets, a clarinet quintet, a clarinet trio, a horn trio, a piano quintet, three piano quartets, and four piano trios (the fourth being published posthumously). He composed several instrumental sonatas with piano, including three for violin, two for cello, and two for clarinet (which were subsequently arranged for viola by the composer). His solo piano works range from his early piano sonatas and ballades to his late sets of character pieces. Brahms was a significant lieder composer, who wrote over 200 songs. His chorale preludes for organ, Op. 122, which he wrote shortly before his death, have become an important part of the organist's repertoire.

Brahms strongly preferred writing absolute music that does not refer to an explicit scene or narrative, and he never wrote an opera or a symphonic poem.

Despite his reputation as a serious composer of large, complex musical structures, some of Brahms's most widely known and most commercially successful compositions during his life were small-scale works of popular intent aimed at the thriving contemporary market for domestic music-making; indeed, during the 20th century, the influential American critic B. H. Haggin, rejecting more mainstream views, argued in his various guides to recorded music that Brahms was at his best in such works and much less successful in larger forms. Among the most cherished of these lighter works by Brahms are his sets of popular dances—the Hungarian Dances, the Waltzes, Op. 39, for piano duet, and the Liebeslieder Waltzes for vocal quartet and piano—and some of his many songs, notably the Wiegenlied, Op. 49, No. 4 (published in 1868). This last was written (to a folk text) to celebrate the birth of a son to Brahms's friend Bertha Faber and is universally known as Brahms's Lullaby.

Style and influences[link]

Brahms in mid-career

Brahms maintained a Classical sense of form and order in his works – in contrast to the opulence of the music of many of his contemporaries. Thus many admirers (though not necessarily Brahms himself) saw him as the champion of traditional forms and "pure music", as opposed to the "New German" embrace of programme music.

Brahms venerated Beethoven: in the composer's home, a marble bust of Beethoven looked down on the spot where he composed, and some passages in his works are reminiscent of Beethoven's style. Brahms's First Symphony bears strongly the influence of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, as the two works are both in a formidable C minor, and end in the struggle towards a C major triumph. The main theme of the finale of the First Symphony is also reminiscent of the main theme of the finale of Beethoven's Ninth, and when this resemblance was pointed out to Brahms, he replied that any ass – jeder Esel – could see that. In 1876, when the work was premiered in Vienna, it was immediately hailed as "Beethoven's Tenth". However, the similarity of Brahms's music to that of late Beethoven had first been noted as early as November 1853, in a letter from Albert Dietrich to Ernst Naumann.^[13][14]

A German Requiem was partially inspired by his mother's death in 1865 (at which time he composed a funeral march that was to become the basis of Part Two, Denn alles Fleisch), but it also incorporates material from a symphony which he started in 1854 but abandoned following Schumann's suicide attempt. He once wrote that the Requiem "belonged to Schumann". The first movement of this abandoned Symphony was re-worked as the first movement of the First Piano Concerto.

Brahms also loved the Classical composers Mozart and Haydn. He collected first editions and autographs of their works, and edited performing editions. He studied the music of pre-classical composers, including Giovanni Gabrieli, Johann Adolph Hasse, Heinrich Schütz, Domenico Scarlatti, George Frideric Handel, and, especially, Johann Sebastian Bach. His friends included leading musicologists, and, with Friedrich Chrysander, he edited an edition of the works of François Couperin. Brahms also edited works by C. P. E. and W. F. Bach. He looked to older music for inspiration in the art of counterpoint; the themes of some of his works are modelled on Baroque sources such as Bach's The Art of Fugue in the fugal finale of Cello Sonata No. 1 or the same composer's Cantata No. 150 in the passacaglia theme of the Fourth Symphony's finale.

The early Romantic composers also had a major influence on Brahms, particularly Schumann, who encouraged Brahms as a young composer. During his stay in Vienna in 1862–63, Brahms became particularly interested in the music of Franz Schubert.^[15] The latter's influence may be identified in works by Brahms dating from the period, such as the two piano quartets Op. 25 and Op. 26, and the Piano Quintet which alludes to Schubert's String Quintet and Grand Duo for piano four hands.^[15][16] The influence of Chopin and Mendelssohn on Brahms is less obvious, although occasionally one can find in his works what seems to be an allusion to one of theirs (for example, Brahms's Scherzo, Op. 4, alludes to Chopin's Scherzo in B-flat minor;^[17] the scherzo movement in Brahms's Piano Sonata in F minor, Op. 5, alludes to the finale of Mendelssohn's Piano Trio in C minor).^[18]

Brahms considered giving up composition when it seemed that other composers' innovations in extended tonality would result in the rule of tonality being broken altogether. Although Wagner became fiercely critical of Brahms as the latter grew in stature and popularity, he was enthusiastically receptive of the early Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel; Brahms himself, according to many sources (Swafford, 1999), deeply admired Wagner's music, confining his ambivalence only to the dramaturgical precepts of Wagner's theory.

Brahms wrote settings for piano and voice of 144 German folk songs, and many of his lieder reflect folk themes or depict scenes of rural life. His Hungarian Dances were among his most profitable compositions.

Brahms and religion[link]

Brahms's personal views tended to be humanistic and sceptical, though one of his musical influences was undoubtedly the Bible as rendered in German by Martin Luther. His Requiem employs biblical texts to speak words of comfort to the bereaved while generally omitting statements concerning salvation or immortality. Composer Walter Niemann declared "The fact that Brahms began his creative activity with the German folk song and closed with the Bible reveals... the true religious creed of this great man of the people." Biographers and critics more often understand Brahms's appreciation of Lutheran tradition as cultural more than existential.^[19] When asked by conductor Karl Reinthaler to add additional sectarian text to his German Requiem, Brahms responded, "As far as the text is concerned, I confess that I would gladly omit even the word German and instead use Human; also with my best knowledge and will I would dispense with passages like John 3:16. On the other hand, I have chosen one thing or another because I am a musician, because I needed it, and because with my venerable authors I can't delete or dispute anything. But I had better stop before I say too much."

There is reason to believe that Brahms was a religious freethinker. Being a star of his age, he would frequently say deceptive things to the public. This means that the most reliable accounts on Brahms's innermost feelings may come from the people in the close circle around him. Among these was the devout Catholic Antonín Dvořák, the closest Brahms ever came to having a protégé. In a letter, Dvořák disclosed his concerns regarding Brahms's religious views: "Such a man, such a fine soul—and he believes in nothing! He believes in nothing!"^[20]

The question of Brahms and religiosity has been controversial and elicited accusations of fraud. One example is the book Talks With Great Composers, released in the 1950s by Arthur Abell, which contains an unconfirmed interview with Brahms and Joseph Joachim, replete with biblical references. The interview has been declared fraudulent by Brahms biographer Jan Swafford.^[5]

Influence[link]

Brahms's point of view looked both backward and forward; his output was often bold in its exploration of harmony and rhythm. As a result, he was an influence on composers of both conservative and modernist tendencies. Within his lifetime, his idiom left an imprint on several composers within his personal circle, who strongly admired his music, such as Heinrich von Herzogenberg, Robert Fuchs, and Julius Röntgen, as well as on Gustav Jenner, who was Brahms's only formal composition pupil. Antonín Dvořák, who received substantial assistance from Brahms, deeply admired his music and was influenced by it in several works, such as the Symphony No. 7 in D minor and the F minor Piano Trio. Features of the 'Brahms style' were absorbed in a more complex synthesis with other contemporary (chiefly Wagnerian) trends by Hans Rott, Wilhelm Berger, Max Reger and Franz Schmidt, whereas the British composers Hubert Parry and Edward Elgar and the Swede Wilhelm Stenhammar all testified to learning much from Brahms's example. As Elgar said, "I look at the Third Symphony of Brahms, and I feel like a pygmy."^[21]

Ferruccio Busoni's early music shows much Brahmsian influence, and Brahms took an interest in him, though Busoni later tended to disparage Brahms. Towards the end of his life, Brahms offered substantial encouragement to Ernő Dohnányi and also to Alexander von Zemlinsky. Their early chamber works (and those of Béla Bartók, who was friendly with Dohnányi) show a thoroughgoing absorption of the Brahmsian idiom. Zemlinsky, moreover, was in turn the teacher of Arnold Schoenberg, and Brahms was apparently impressed by two movements of Schoenberg's early Quartet in D major which Zemlinsky showed him. In 1933, Schoenberg wrote an essay "Brahms the Progressive" (re-written 1947), which drew attention to Brahms's fondness for motivic saturation and irregularities of rhythm and phrase; in his last book (Structural Functions of Harmony, 1948), he analysed Brahms's "enriched harmony" and exploration of remote tonal regions. These efforts paved the way for a re-evaluation of Brahms's reputation in the 20th century. Schoenberg went so far as to orchestrate one of Brahms's piano quartets. Schoenberg's pupil Anton Webern, in his 1933 lectures, posthumously published under the title The Path to the New Music, claimed Brahms as one who had anticipated the developments of the Second Viennese School, and Webern's own Op. 1, an orchestral passacaglia, is clearly in part a homage to, and development of, the variation techniques of the passacaglia-finale of Brahms's Fourth Symphony.

Brahms was honoured by the German Hall of Fame, the Walhalla memorial. On 14 September 2000, he was introduced there as the 126th "rühmlich ausgezeichneter Teutscher" and 13th composer among them, with a bust by sculptor Milan Knobloch.^[22]

Personality[link]

Like Beethoven, Brahms was fond of nature and often went walking in the woods around Vienna. He often brought penny candy with him to hand out to children. To adults, Brahms was often brusque and sarcastic, and he sometimes alienated other people. His pupil Gustav Jenner wrote, "Brahms has acquired, not without reason, the reputation for being a grump, even though few could also be as lovable as he."^[23] He also had predictable habits, which were noted by the Viennese press, such as his daily visit to his favourite "Red Hedgehog" tavern in Vienna, and his habit of walking with his hands firmly behind his back, which led to a caricature of him in this pose walking alongside a red hedgehog. Those who remained his friends were very loyal to him, however, and he reciprocated with equal loyalty and generosity.

Brahms had amassed a small fortune in the second half of his career, around 1860, when his works sold widely. But despite his wealth, he lived very simply, with a modest apartment – a mess of music papers and books – and a single housekeeper who cleaned and cooked for him. He was often the butt of jokes for his long beard, his cheap clothes and often not wearing socks, etc. Brahms gave away large sums of money to friends and to aid various musical students, often with the term of strict secrecy. Brahms' domicile was hit during World War II, destroying his piano and other possessions that were still kept there for posterity by the Viennese.^[2]

Johann Strauss II (left) and Johannes Brahms (right) photographed in Vienna

Brahms was a lifelong friend of Johann Strauss II, though they were very different as composers. Brahms even struggled to get to the Theater an der Wien in Vienna for the premiere of Strauss's operetta Die Göttin der Vernunft in 1897 before his death. Perhaps the greatest tribute that Brahms paid to Strauss was his remark that he would have given anything to have written The Blue Danube waltz. An old anecdote recounts that when Strauss's wife Adele asked Brahms to autograph her fan, he wrote the first few notes of the "Blue Danube" waltz, and then wrote the words "Unfortunately not by Johannes Brahms!" underneath.

Brahms was an extreme perfectionist. He destroyed many early works – including a Violin Sonata he had performed with Reményi and violinist Ferdinand David – and once claimed to have destroyed 20 string quartets before he issued his official First in 1873. Over the course of several years, he changed an original project for a symphony in D minor into his first piano concerto. In another instance of devotion to detail, he laboured over the official First Symphony for almost fifteen years, from about 1861 to 1876. Even after its first few performances, Brahms destroyed the original slow movement and substituted another before the score was published. (A conjectural restoration of the original slow movement has been published by Robert Pascall.) Another factor that contributed to Brahms's perfectionism was that Schumann had announced early on that Brahms was to become the next great composer like Beethoven, a prediction that Brahms was determined to live up to. This prediction hardly added to the composer's self-confidence, and may have contributed to the delay in producing the First Symphony. However, Clara Schumann noted before that Brahms's First Symphony was a product that was not reflective of Brahms's real nature. She felt that the final exuberant movement was "too brilliant", as she was encouraged by the dark and tempestuous opening movement she had seen in an early draft. However, she recanted in accepting the Second Symphony, which has often been seen in modern times as one of his sunniest works. Other contemporaries, however, found the first movement especially dark, and Reinhold Brinkmann, in a study of Symphony No. 2 in relation to 19th century ideas of melancholy, has published a revealing letter from Brahms to the composer and conductor Vinzenz Lachner in which Brahms confesses to the melancholic side of his nature and comments on specific features of the movement that reflect this.

International Johannes Brahms Competition[link]

Further reading[link]

• Deiters/Newmarch. (1888). Johannes Brahms: A Biographical Sketch. Fisher Unwin (reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2009; ISBN 978-1-108-00479-4)
• Johannes Brahms: Life and Letters, ISBN 0-19-816234-0 by Brahms himself, edited by Styra Avins, translated by Josef Eisinger (1998). A biography by way of comprehensive footnotes to a comprehensive collection of Brahms's letters (some translated into English for the first time). Elucidates some previously contentious matters, such as Brahms's reasons for declining the Cambridge invitation.
• Brahms, His Life and Work, by Karl Geiringer, photographs by Irene Geiringer (1987, ISBN 0-306-80223-6). A biog and discussion of his musical output, supplemented by, and cross-referenced with, the body of correspondence sent to Brahms.
• Charles Rosen discusses a number of Brahms's imitations of Beethoven in Chapter 9 of his Critical Entertainments: Music Old and New (2000; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, ISBN 0-674-17730-4).
• Brahms by Malcolm MacDonald is a biography and also discussion of virtually everything Brahms composed, along with chapters examining his position in Romantic music, his devotion to Early Music, and his influence on later composers. (Dent 'Master Musicians' series, 1990; 2nd edition Oxford, 2001, ISBN 0-19-816484-X
• Johannes Brahms: A Biography, by Jan Swafford. A comprehensive (752 pages) look at the life and works of Brahms. (1999; Vintage, ISBN 0-679-74582-3)
• Late Idyll: The Second Symphony of Johannes Brahms, by Reinhold Brinkmann, translated by Peter Palmer. An analysis of Symphony No.2 and meditation of its position in Brahms's career and in relation to 19th century ideas of melancholy. (1995, Harvard, ISBN 0-674-51175-1)
• Johannes Brahms, His Work & Personality, by Hans Gal (Translated by Joseph Stein). Wiedenfeld & Nicolson, 1963.
• The Music of Brahms, by Michael Musgrave. Oxford, 1985 ISBN 0-19-816401-7

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Johannes Brahms

• Brahms Institut, Lübeck Academy of Music
• The Lied and Art Song Texts Page created and maintained by Emily Ezust Texts of the Lieder of Brahms with translations in various languages.
• "What's late about late Brahms?": an article in the TLS by Peter Williams, 7 November 2007
• Brahms at the Piano. Information about the recording made by Thomas Edison in 1889 of Brahms playing part of his Hungarian Dance No. 1 in G minor.
• Johannes Brahms: list of works from http://www.johannesbrahms.org
• Photo of Brahms as a young man in 1853
• Brahms Listening Guides. A collection in progress of detailed guides to the composer's works, linked to specific recordings but also including measure numbers
• Listings of live performances at Bachtrack
• johannes brahms biography
• Works by or about Johannes Brahms in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Johannes Brahms in the German National Library catalogue (German)

Sheet music[link]

• Complete collection of scores at the Brahms Institut in Breitkopf & Härtel or Simrock editions; work details
• Brahms’ scores – selection of printable works.
• www.kreusch-sheet-music.net Brahms's piano works
• Free scores of Brahms Lieder and orchestral works in GIF format from the Variations Project at Indiana University. Last accessed 14 August 2008.
• Free scores by Brahms at the International Music Score Library Project
• Free scores by Johannes Brahms in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
• Works by Johannes Brahms at Project Gutenberg
• Free scores by Johannes Brahms in the Werner Icking Music Archive (WIMA)
• Free scores Mutopia Project

Recordings[link]

• Free audio MP3 of some Brahms's works OnClassical – Creative Commons BY-NC-SA, 1.0 licensed
• Johannes Brahms – Violin Sonatas MP3 Creative Commons Recording
• Fünf Gesänge, Op. 104 (Brahms): Free MP3s (Op. 42, Op. 93a, Op. 104 and Op. 52)
• Kunst der Fuge: Johannes Brahms – MIDI files Daily limit of 5 files.
• Works by Brahms performed on virtual organs
• Classic Cat – Brahms – mp3s
• Performances of works by Johannes Brahms in MIDI and MP3 formats at Logos Virtual Library

Hélène Grimaud in rehearsal at the La Roque-d'Anthéron Festival

Hélène Grimaud (born November 7, 1969) is a French pianist.

Biography[link]

Grimaud was born in Aix-en-Provence, France. On her mother's side, she is descended from Italian-Sephardi Jews on Corsica; and, on her father's side, from Algerian Jews.^[1][2] She has stated that, as a child, she was often "agitated".^[3] She discovered the piano at seven. In 1982, she entered the Conservatoire de Paris, where she studied with Jacques Rouvier. In 1985, she won 1st Prize at the Conservatory and the Grand Prix du Disque of the Académie Charles Cros for her recording of the Sergei Rachmaninoff Piano Sonata No. 2. In 1987, she launched her professional career with a solo recital in Paris and a performance with the Orchestre de Paris under Daniel Barenboim.

In 1991, at age 21, Grimaud moved to Tallahassee, Florida, to be near a boyfriend who taught bassoon at Florida State University.^[4] In 1997, she settled in Westchester County, north of New York City. After some time spent in Berlin,^[5] she currently resides in Switzerland.^[6] She has a passion for wolves, which she studies and raises. She now divides her time between her musical career and the Wolf Conservation Center, which she co-founded with her former companion, photographer J. Henry Fair.^[7] She also experiences synesthesia, where one physical sense adds to another, in her case seeing music as color.

She performed at the Last Night of the BBC Proms in London in September 2008, playing the piano part of Beethoven's Choral Fantasia.

Critical reception[link]

Critics have praised Grimaud's willingness to reinterpret works and take chances, and compared her to Glenn Gould:

Grimaud doesn’t sound like most pianists: she is a rubato artist, a reinventor of phrasings, a taker of chances. “A wrong note that is played out of élan, you hear it differently than one that is played out of fear,” she says. She admires “the more extreme players . . . people who wouldn’t be afraid to play their conception to the end.” Her two overriding characteristics are independence and drive, and her performances attempt, whenever possible, to shake up conventional pianistic wisdom. Brian Levine, the executive director of the Glenn Gould Foundation, sees in Grimaud a resemblance to Gould: “She has this willingness to take a piece of music apart and free herself from the general body of practice that has grown up around it.”^[8]

Discography[link]

On Denon ^[A]

• Rachmaninoff Piano Sonata No. 2 (1986)
• Chopin Ballade No. 1, Liszt Après une Lecture de Dante, Schumann Sonata for Piano (1987)
• Schumann Kreisleriana, Brahms Piano Sonata No. 2 (1989)
• Brahms Piano Sonata No. 3 & 6, Klavierstücke (1992)
• Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2, Ravel Piano Concerto (1993)

On Erato

• Schumann Piano Concerto, Richard Strauss Burleske (1995)
• Brahms Piano Pieces Op. 116–119 (1996)
• Gershwin Piano Concerto, Ravel Piano Concerto (1997)
• Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 (1998)

On Teldec

• Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4, Piano Sonata No. 30, Piano Sonata No. 31 (1999)
• Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2, Prelude Op. 32/12, Études-Tableaux Op. 33/1, 2 and 9, Variations on a Theme of Corelli (2001)
• Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4, Schumann Piano Concerto, Op. 54 (2003)

On Deutsche Grammophon

• Credo, comprising John Corigliano: Fantasia on an Ostinato, Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 17 "Tempest", Choral Fantasy, Arvo Pärt: Credo (2003)
• Chopin | Rachmaninoff (2005)
• Bartók The Piano Concertos (on the third) (2005)
• Reflection (2006)
• Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5 "Emperor", Piano Sonata No. 28 (2007)
• Bach Various (2008)
• Resonances, Mozart: Sonata No. 8, Berg: Sonata op.1, Liszt: Sonata in B minor, Bartok: Romanian Folk Dances.
• Mozart Piano Concerto No. 19, Piano Concerto No. 23, Ch'io mi scordi di te? (with Mojca Erdmann, soprano).

On Philips

• Schumann Sonata for Violin and Piano in A minor, Op. 105, Gidon Kremer violin and Helene Grimaud piano. Recording date: 7/1989. Release: Lockenhaus Festival 1982-1992 A Decade of Music-Making (1997)

On ACA Digital Recording, Inc

• Bassoon Music Of The Americas, Composers on Bassoon Music Of The Americas: Alvin Etler, Waldir Azevedo, Jose Siqueira, Magda Santos/Pó, Pixinguinha, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Willson Osborne. Jeff Keesecker - bassoon & Hélène Grimaud - piano (2002)

Bibliography[link]

• Variations sauvages (2003, published in English as Wild Harmonies)
• Leçons particulières (2005)
• D.T. Max, "Her way: A pianist of strong opinions", New Yorker 87/35 (7 November 2011), 58-65.

Notes and references[link]

Notes[link]

References[link]

• James R. Oestreich, "Recording as a Road to Recovery", New York Times, 27 January 2011
• New Yorker Profile by D. T. Max: "Her Way, A pianist of strong opinions", 7 November 2011
• Daniel J. Wakin, "Titans Clash Over a Mere Cadenza", New York Times, 30 October 2011

External links[link]

• Official Website
• Biographical information
• Wolf Conservation Center
• Interview with Helene Grimaud and performances of Bartok and Liszt on PBS "Sound Tracks presents Quick Hits'
• Classical Archives Interview

Sergey Khachatryan (Armenian: Սերգեյ Խաչատրյան; also spelled Sergei Khachatryan) is an Armenian violinist. He was born in Yerevan in 1985. ^[1]

He made his New York City debut on August 4, 2006, playing the Beethoven Violin Concerto in Avery Fisher Hall under the baton of Osmo Vänskä. ^[2]

Prizes[link]

2000: 1st Prize at the International Louis Spohr Competition for young violinists ^[3]
2000: 1st Prize at the International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition (he is the youngest person who ever won)^[1]
2000: 2nd Prize at the International Fritz Kreisler Competition ^[3]
2002 : 2nd Prize at the Indianapolis International Violin Competition ^[4]
2005: 1st Prize at the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition ^[5]

At the Queen Elisabeth Competition, he won the 1708 "Huggins" Stradivarius violin on loan to him from the Nippon Music Foundation for four years. ^[3]

Recordings[link]

He has four CDs at Naïve Classique: ^[6]
1. Jean Sibelius Violin Concerto/Aram Khachaturian Violin Concerto
2. Shostakovitch Violin Concerto 1,2
3. Franck Violin Sonata in A major/ Shostakovitch Violin Sonata, Op. 134
4. J.S. Bach: Sonatas & Partitas, BWV 1001-1006 (2010)
He has a debut CD at EMI Classics, released October 7, 2002. Among the works on this CD are the Brahms D minor sonata and Ravel's Tzigane, both performed with pianist Lusine Khachatryan, as well as Chausson's Poeme and Waxman's Carmen Fantasy, both performed with pianist Vladimir Khachatryan. (Lusine is Sergey's sister, born in 1983 ^[3] and Vladimir is Sergey's father.)

References[link]

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Evgeny Kissin (2011)

Evgeny Igorevitch Kissin (Russian: Евге́ний И́горевич Ки́син Yevgeniy Igorevich Kisin; born 10 October 1971) is a Russian classical pianist. He first came to international fame as a child prodigy. He has been a British citizen since 2002.^[1] He is especially known for his interpretations of the works of the Romantic repertoire, particularly Frédéric Chopin, Rachmaninoff and Franz Liszt.

Life[link]

Early Life and Career[link]

Kissin was born in Moscow to a Russian Jewish family. Recognized as a child prodigy, at age six, he began piano studies at the esteemed Gnessin School of Music for Gifted Children. At the school, he became a student of Anna Kantor, who remained Kissin's only piano teacher.^[2]

At the age of ten, Kissin made his debut performing Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor with the Ulyanovsk Symphony Orchestra. The year after that he gave his first recital in Moscow. Kissin's talents were revealed on the international scene in 1984, at the age of twelve, when he played and recorded both of Chopin's piano concertos with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire. Kissin’s first appearances outside Russia were in 1985 in Eastern Europe, followed a year later by his first tour of Japan. In 1987 he made his West European debut at the Berlin Festival as well as his United Kingdom debut, alongside conductor Valery Gergiev and violinists Maxim Vengerov and Vadim Repin, at The Lichfield Festival. In 1988 he toured Europe with the Moscow Virtuosi and Vladimir Spivakov and also made his London debut with the London Symphony Orchestra under Valery Gergiev. In December of the same year he played Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 with Herbert von Karajan at the Berlin Philharmonic's New Year's Eve Concert which was broadcast internationally, with the performance repeated the following year at the Salzburg Easter Festival. In September 1990, Kissin made his debut in North America playing Chopin's two piano concertos with the New York Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta and the first piano recital in Carnegie Hall's centennial season. In 1997, he gave the first solo piano recital in the history of The Proms in London.^[3]

Achievements and Recent Engagements[link]

Kissin makes regular recital tours of Europe, America and Asia. He has performed with nearly all the leading orchestras of the world, under such conductors as Claudio Abbado, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Daniel Barenboim, Sir Colin Davis, Valery Gergiev, Carlo Maria Giulini, Mariss Jansons, Herbert von Karajan, James Levine, Sir Andrew Davis, Lorin Maazel, Riccardo Muti, Seiji Ozawa, Sir Georg Solti, Yevgeny Svetlanov and Yuri Temirkanov. Kissin has also performed chamber music with Martha Argerich, Gidon Kremer, James Levine, Mischa Maisky, Thomas Quasthoff, Isaac Stern and others, who admire Kissin's virtuosity.

Many musical awards and tributes from around the world have been showered upon Kissin. In 1987 he received the Crystal Prize of the Osaka Symphony Hall for the best performance of the year 1986 (his first performance in Japan). In 1991 he received the Musician of the Year Prize from the Chigiana Academy of Music in Siena, Italy. He was special guest at the 1992 Grammy Awards Ceremony, broadcast live to an audience estimated at over one billion, and became Musical America’s youngest Instrumentalist of the Year in 1995. In 1997 he received the prestigious Triumph Award for his outstanding contribution to Russia’s culture, one of the highest cultural honors to be awarded in the Russian Republic, and again, the youngest-ever awardee. He was the first pianist to be invited to give a recital at the BBC Proms (1997), and, in the 2000 season, was the first concerto soloist ever to be invited to play in the Proms opening concert. In May 2001 Kissin was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Music by the Manhattan School of Music. In December 2003 in Moscow, he received the Shostakovich Award, one of Russia’s highest musical honors. In June 2005 he was awarded an Honorary Membership of the Royal Academy of Music in London. In March 2009 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the Hong Kong University.

In addition to classical music, Kissin has given recitals of Yiddish and Russian poetry. A CD compilation of Kissin's recitals from the contemporary Yiddish poetry was issued by the Forward Association in 2010.^[4] In 2007 he became Honorary Patron of a professional chamber opera company, City Opera of Vancouver, led by conductor Charles Barber.^[5][6]

Recordings[link]

Kissin’s piano recordings have also received numerous awards and accolades, including the Edison Klassiek in The Netherlands and the Diapason d’Or and the Grand Prix of La Nouvelle Academie du Disque in France, as well as awards from music magazines throughout the world. His recording of works by Scriabin, Medtner and Stravinsky (RCA Red Seal) won him a Grammy in 2006 for Best Instrumental Soloist and, in 2002, he was named Echo Klassik Soloist of the Year. In 2010 he was awarded the Grammy for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (With Orchestra) for his recording of Prokofiev’s Piano Concertos Nos. 2 and 3 with the Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy (EMI Classics).

His first studio recording, in 1988 for RCA Red Seal, was of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with Gergiev/London Symphony Orchestra, and six Etudes-Tableaux, Op. 39. Other works recorded for RCA Red Seal are two Chopin recital programs, one with the four Ballades, Barcarolle, Berceuse, and Scherzo No. 4, Op. 54, and another with the 24 Preludes Op. 28, Sonata No. 2 and Polonaise in A- flat; Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, Brahms’ Variations on a Theme of Paganini, and Francks’s Prelude, Choral and Fugue; Schumann’s Fantasy, Op. 17 and five Etudes d’execution transcendante by Liszt; Schumann’s Kreisleriana and the Bach-Busoni Chaconne; Bach-Busoni Toccata, Adagio and Fugue in C major, Glinka-Balakirev The Lark and Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition; Schumann’s Sonata No. 1 in F sharp minor and Carnaval; and an all-Brahms disc including Sonata No. 3 in F Minor and five Hungarian dances. A duo recital with James Levine of works by Schubert was recorded live at Carnegie Hall in 2005 and released in 2006.

Other recital albums include Schubert Sonata No. 21 in B flat major and Schubert-Liszt Four Songs (BMG/RCA Victor Red Seal), Schubert Wanderer Fantasie, Brahms Seven Pieces, Op. 116, Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody No. 12 (Deutsche Grammophon) and Haydn Sonata No. 30 in A major, Sonata No. 52 in E flat major, and Schubert Sonata in A minor D784 (Sony).

Among his concerto recordings are the complete Beethoven Piano Concertos with Sir Colin Davis and the London Symphony Orchestra (EMI); Mozart Piano Concerto No 24 and Schumann Piano Concerto with Sir Colin Davis and the London Symphony Orchestra (EMI); Schumann Concerto with the Vienna Philharmonic and Giulini (Sony Classical); Beethoven Piano Concertos Nos. 2 and 5 with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Levine (Sony Classical); Prokofiev Concertos Nos. 1 and 3 with the Berlin Philharmonic and Abbado (Deutsche Grammophon) and Rachmaninoff Concerto No. 3 with the Boston Symphony and Ozawa (RCA Red Seal); Mozart Concertos Nos. 12 and 20 and Rondo in D major KV. 382, Haydn Concerto in D major, Shostakovich Concerto No. 1 with the Moscow Virtuosi and Spivakov (RCA Red Seal); Beethoven Choral Fantasy with the Berlin Philharmonic and Abbado (Deutsche Grammophon); Prokofiev Concertos Nos. 2 and 3 with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Ashkenazy (EMI Classics). A recent recording with Kremerata Baltica of Mozart Concertos Nos. 20 and 27 will be a forthcoming release on EMI.

Christopher Nupen’s documentary film, Evgeny Kissin: The Gift of Music, was released in 2000 on video and DVD by RCA Red Seal.

The 2010-2011 music season sees engagements in major cities across Europe. He will then embark on a North American tour, featuring solo recitals, chamber recitals with Yuri Bashmet, and performances with the Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.

Awards and Recognitions[link]

• Musical America, Instrumentalist of the Year, 1994
• Triumph Award, Outstanding Contribution to Russia's Culture (Youngest Awardee), 1997
• Honorary Doctorate of Music by the Manhattan School of Music, New York 2001
• Honorary Membership of the Royal Academy of Music 2005^[7]
• Herbert von Karajan Award, Baden-Baden, Germany (2005)
• Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (without orchestra), 2006
• Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli Award, Brescia, Italy 2007
• Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with orchestra), 2009
• Honorary Doctoral Degree by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem 2010

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Evgeny Kissin

• Full Biography
• (English) Productions Internationales Albert Sarfati (France Management) : Evgeny Kissin
• Evgeny Kissin's Fan Club Homepage
• "Sony BMG Evgeny Kissin Page". Sony BMG. http://www.kissinmusic.com/. Retrieved 2006-08-12. 
• "Evgeny Kissin at IMG". IMG Artists. http://www.imgartists.com/?page=artist&id=187. Retrieved 2006-05-28. 
• "Evgeny Kissin". BMG Classics. http://www.bmgclassics.com/artists/artist.jsp?id=105438&artist=Evgeny%20Kissin. Retrieved 2006-05-28. 
• "Evgeny Kissin". RCA Victor. Archived from the original on 2006-05-09. http://web.archive.org/web/20060509120614/http://www.rcavictor.com/artists/artist.jsp?id=105438. Retrieved 2006-05-28. 
• "Evgeny Kissin". EMI Classics. http://www.emiclassics.co.uk/search_new.php?q=evgeny%20kissin. Retrieved 2008-06-05. 
• "Evgeny Kissin". Sony Classical. http://sonyclassical.com/artists/kissin/. Retrieved 2006-05-28. 
• Evgeny Kissin - on Allmusic
• DVD Times link on documentary We Want the Light

Henryk Szeryng (usually pronounced HEN-rik SHEH-ring) (22 September 1918 – 3 March 1988) was a Polish violinist.

Early years[link]

He was born in Żelazowa Wola, Poland on 22 September 1918^[1] into a wealthy Jewish family.

Henryk started piano and harmony training with his mother when he was 5, and at age 7 turned to the violin, receiving instruction from Maurice Frenkel. After studies with Carl Flesch in Berlin (1929–32), he went to Paris to continue his training with Jacques Thibaud at the Conservatory, graduating with a premier prix in 1937.

Career[link]

He made his solo debut on 6 January 1933 playing the Brahms Violin Concerto with the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra under Romanian conductor George Georgescu.^[2] From 1933 to 1939 he studied composition in Paris with Nadia Boulanger, and during World War II he worked as an interpreter for the Polish government in exile (Szeryng was fluent in seven languages) and gave concerts for Allied troops all over the world. During one of these concerts in Mexico City he received an offer to take over the string department of the university there.

In 1946, he became a naturalized citizen of Mexico.

Szeryng subsequently focused on teaching before resuming his concert career in 1954. His debut in New York City brought him great acclaim, and he toured widely for the rest of his life. He died in Kassel, Germany, on 3 March 1988.^[1]

Notable recordings[link]

Szeryng made a number of recordings, including two of the complete sonatas and partitas for violin by Johann Sebastian Bach, and several of sonatas of Beethoven and Brahms with the pianist Arthur Rubinstein. He also composed; his works include a number of violin concertos and pieces of chamber music.

Violins[link]

He owned the Del Gesu "Le Duc", the Stradivarius "King David" as well as the Messiah Strad copy by Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume which he gave to Prince Rainier III of Monaco. The "Le Duc" was the instrument on which he performed and recorded mostly, and the "King David" was donated to the State of Israel.

Quotes[link]

"In 1941 he accompanied the prime minister to Latin America to find a home for some 4,000 Polish refugees; the refugees were taken in by Mexico, and Szeryng, in gratitude, settled there himself, becoming a naturalized citizen in 1946. Throughout World War II, he appeared in some 300 concerts for the Allies. After the war, he pursued a brilliant international career; was also active as a teacher. In 1970 he was made Mexico's special adviser to UNESCO in Paris. He celebrated the 50th anniversary of his debut with a grand tour of Europe and the U.S. in 1983."^[3]

"A cosmopolitan fluent in 7 languages, a humanitarian, and a violinist of extraordinary gifts, Szeryng became renowned as a musician's musician by combining a virtuoso technique with a probing discernment of the highest order."^[3]

Footnotes[link]

References[link]

• Legendary Violinists
• Henryk Szeryng on MySpace
• Szeryng playing Brahms and Bach
• Violin Virtuosos (from Paganini to 21st century) - Henry Roth 1997 ISBN 18879395150
• Decca Classics
• "Henryk Szeryng." BAKER'S BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF MUSICIANS Centennial Edition. Nicolas Slonimsky, Editor Emeritus. Schirmer, 2001, ISBN 978-0-02-865525-3.
• Tanomura, Tadaharu, Henryk Szeryng Discography Part 2: Orchestral Works, http://www.tanomura.com/music/szeryng/szeryng2.html, retrieved 2009-04-28 

Awards and recognitions[link]

Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance:

• Pierre Fournier, Arthur Rubinstein & Henryk Szeryng for Schubert: Trios Nos. 1 in B Flat, Op. 99 and 2 in E Flat, Op. 100 (Piano Trios) (1976)
• Pierre Fournier, Arthur Rubinstein & Henryk Szeryng for Brahms: Trios (Complete)/Schumann: Trio No. 1 in D Minor (1975)

• Grand Prix du Disque 1959 for the Brahms violin concerto with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Pierre Monteux
• Grand Prix du Disque for the Bach Solo Sonatas and Partitas (DGG)