Brahms Quotes

You look at Beethoven's sketch book and he's working things out, trying this, trying that. Mozart didn't do that. He simply wrote it out. Beethoven did not have the same abilities that Mozart had. And you know how much Beethoven means to us. When you listen to the Ninth Symphony, it's one of the greatest accomplishments of all mankind, artistically certainly. But he shuddered when he thought of the shadow Mozart cast over music and he felt pressure, just like Brahms felt the pressure Beethoven's Ninth put on symphonic writing. - George Hanson

Without craftsmanship, inspiration is a mere reed shaken in the wind. - Johannes Brahms

What would become of all historical biography if it was written only with consideration for other peoples' feelings? - Johannes Brahms

We have hundreds of pieces of new music being composed every year. How many will last? This has always been true. How many of Brahms' pieces lasted? And what of Brahms' contemporaries, the ones whose work hasn't survived? It is unfair to compare today's music to what has endured, which is only the greatest music. The point is to listen, to keep listening. - Jahja Ling

We cling nervously to the melody, but we don't handle it freely, we don't really make anything new out of it, we merely overload it. - Johannes Brahms

There are some experiences in life which should not be demanded twice from any man, and one of them is listening to the Brahms Requiem. - George Bernard Shaw

There are real problems with those pieces. I mean everything that Brahms writes seems to be 'bigger' than the medium he's writing for. The string quartets may be the most problematic of all his chamber music. - Lawrence Dutton

The real Brahms is nothing more than a sentimental voluptuary. rather tiresomely addicted to dressing himself up as Handel or Beethoven and making a prolonged and intolerable noise. - George Bernard Shaw

The Detroit String Quartet played Brahms last night. Brahms lost. - Bennett Cerf