Johannes Brahms_ A Biography - Jan Swafford [52]
On July 10, his mother wrote expressing surprise and concern over the break with Reményi: “I hope you parted friends.” But what was he doing for money? Fritz offered to send his savings, or maybe Christiane offered for him.26 Johannes declined the gift, insisting he needed nothing. His mother doggedly responded: “Even if you have free lodging, food, and drink, you must have clean linen, your boots wear out, and, after all, how can you live away from home without money? If you have to get every little thing from Joachim, you will be under too great an obligation.… You understand people too little and trust them too much.” Then and for years after, his parents worried that he was oblivious to practical matters, living on air—which he more or less was. To get by, Johannes would take on concerts and pupils, grudgingly, here and there, and depend on friends for funds and lodging.
Sister Elise appended to a letter that Herr Marxsen would like his student back but, “We think it’s best for you to try your luck in foreign parts, even though we’d love to have you home.… How is the young girl who always brings you your coffee, is she pretty and not as fat as me?”27
In an effort to ease parental anxieties, Joachim took it upon himself to write them:
Allow me … to write and tell you how infinitely blessed I feel in the companionship of your Johannes.… Johannes has stimulated my work as an artist to an extent beyond my hopes. To strive with him for a mutual goal is a fresh spur for me on the thorny path that we musicians have to tread through life. His purity, his independence, young though he is, and the singular wealth of his heart and intellect find sympathetic utterance in his music, just as his whole nature will bring joy to all who come into spiritual contact with him. How splendid it will be when his artistic powers are revealed in a work accessible to all! And with his ardent desire for perfection nothing else is possible. You will understand my wish to have him near me as long as his presence does not interfere with his duty to himself.28
Christiane Brahms replied to this rhapsodic testimonial—shaped for the purpose, but genuine—as best she could. Even Johann Jakob penned a few words to Joachim, adding his stolid blessing to this son who seemed to be impressing all sorts of famous people: “I hold it for a particularly favorable sign from heaven and it allows me to look to the future with high hopes and confidence.” Maybe, in other words, the boy will actually make a living. Still, they would be wondering around the dinner table in Hamburg, how can he earn any real money without Reményi?
At the end of July, Christiane tried again to get a handle on the situation: Invite Joachim to come to Hamburg and visit with us, we’ll make you chocolate and get theater tickets, whip up a bowl of egg punch and your favorite pastries.… “Ach, this is all silly. You can see your way better than I can.”29 For all the motherly worrying and advice, Christiane Brahms’s letters reveal an extraordinary confidence in the judgment of her shining boy. She had observed the child take one decisive step after another from the beginning of his studies, and she sensed there was some pattern in it visible only to him. Joachim and other friends had recognized that, but it is remarkable for a parent to see it.
Johannes had a more immediate plan that he was ready to put in motion. He and Joachim gave a concert in Göttingen and Brahms devoted the proceeds to a long-anticipated hiking tour of the Rhine, the spiritual heartland of Germany. On August 26, he arrived in Mainz for the beginning of the trip, staff in hand and pack on his back.