Johannes Brahms_ A Biography - Jan Swafford [194]
Theodor Billroth, some four years older than Brahms, was a surgeon as well as expert musical amateur. Soon he would be called to the University of Vienna, a nexus of modern medicine, where he joined Brahms’s inner circle of friends and patrons. Already when they met in 1865, Billroth was becoming one of the most acclaimed surgeons in the world. He was among the first to explore procedures made possible by the discoveries of anesthesia and antisepsis, so that surgeons no longer had to restrain screaming patients during operations, and infection was no longer commonplace. Big, bluff, blond-bearded, loquacious in disposition, and unhappily married, Billroth was driven to get out of the house and indulge his love of music and society as well as medicine, and attended them all with superhuman energy.
Another Zürich encounter of this year, who only later turned up in Brahms’s life as friend, was Swiss pastor and writer Josef Viktor Widmann. This winter he saw Brahms for the first time, in a Winterthur concert with Kirchner. Widmann recalled his impression:
Brahms, then in his thirty-third year, at once impressed me as a strong personality. The short, square figure, the almost sandy-colored hair, the protruding underlip which lent a cynical expression to the beardless and youthful face, was striking and hardly prepossessing; but yet the total impression was one of consummate strength, both physical and moral. The broad chest, the herculean shoulders, the powerful head which he threw back energetically when playing, the fine thoughtful brow shining as with an inward light, and the two Teutonic eyes, with the wonderful fiery glance, softened only by the fair eyelashes—all betrayed an artistic personality replete with the spirit of true genius. In his countenance there lay such a promise of victory, such radiating cheerfulness of a mind revelling in the exercise of its power.27
So for all his indifference to performing, Brahms had a dashing platform manner in those days. In fact he was elated at the tour, not to mention considerably enriched by it. He crowed to Clara with uncharacteristic bravado, “I will tell you in detail how successful I have been, as a matter of fact quite beyond expectation in every way. What has pleased me most is that I really have the gifts of a virtuoso.” (That conviction would not last.) In reply Clara, as fastidious about finances as everything else, wrote him, “I wish you would give me your money to keep for you!… Why do you always carry it about with you?” Since Brahms regarded the handling of money as a bore, her offer was agreeable. He began sending Clara his earnings, which she invested to great effect in stocks and securities. Later, not wanting to trouble her with a growing fortune to which he paid little attention, Brahms would let friend and publisher Fritz Simrock handle his finances. As it turned out, Simrock the businessman invested them less wisely than Clara the pianist.
AS THE END OF 1865 APPROACHED, Brahms traveled to the court of Detmold where he had worked in the decade before, to visit Karl Bargheer and other old friends and concertize for a few days. Not expecting to see him for the holiday, Clara sent a traveling bag for his Christmas present and reported, “Thank heaven we have fairly good news of Julie. She has got over the danger of typhoid, but it will be a long time before she has completely recovered.” To surprise them on Christmas Eve, Brahms made the seven-hour journey from Detmold to Düsseldorf, where they were spending the holiday. Before he arrived the family had been too despondent to rouse themselves to light the candles on the tree. Always when Brahms arrived in Clara’s house, the energy and spirits soared. In her diary she wrote that she was “very pleased and excited” when Johannes turned up.28 She might have felt otherwise if she had known that part of his reason for coming was apprehension about Julie. In some vague and confused way, he had come to consider Clara’s daughter his own.
In Hanover two days before New Year’s, Joachim’s wife, Amalie, began a gloomy