Johannes Brahms

German musician, a composer, pianist and conductor whose compositions of every type of music, except opera, are still played. Brahms is sometimes grouped with Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven as one of the "Three Bs" of music, a comment originally made by the nineteenth-century conductor Hans von Bülow.

Brahms was the son of a seamstress, lame and homely, 17 years older than her husband, who lavished affection upon the boy. With a strong attachment to her until her death in 1865, Brahms cried out over her grave, "I no longer have a mother. I must marry!" His father was a double bass player who literally eked out a living playing in a cafe near Hamburg. At one time his dad tried raising chickens and rabbits, at another time, attempted business in a small shop; he even considered emigrating to America. Jakob Brahms instilled in his son a desire for bourgeois respectability and comfort, but also a restless independence. Adept as a youngster, the boy first played piano professionally at 13 in taverns near the Hamburg docks where sailors just in from long voyages came to bed down with the ladies of the town. Always courteous to prostitutes, who found him an eager if awkward lover, his caustic side was more likely to surface with society women. He like to do all the courting; if a woman showed initiative, he put her off. Though he had at least seven major, unconsummated relationships with respectable women, he slept only with prostitutes.

As a child prodigy, Brahms performed a piano concert at age 15 and gained fame during his lifetime. Even when famous, Brahms lived modestly, dressed with economy and took pride in spending little on his food. He had no extravagant tastes and even in his passion for collecting original manuscripts of great masters, observed a frugal budget. Nonetheless he loved good food and drink, and when dining with friends, enjoyed a more liberal palate.

Gruff, acerbic and orderly, he never married.