Johannes Brahms_ A Biography - Jan Swafford [64]
In 1853, however, Johannes was still, for Joachim and others, the golden boy, the young eagle, the green and gold tiger, the fervid Young Kreisler dragging friends out to bask in the moonlight.
DURING NOVEMBER the Schumanns made a tour of Holland that turned out an artistic triumph, but no respite from the troubles overtaking them. On their return they had a letter from Brahms addressed “Mynheer Domine” in honor of the Holland visit, and continuing, “Forgive this playful form of address on the part of one whom you have made infinitely happy and joyful.… Härtels have told me that they are ready to print my first attempts.” At that point, whatever burdens Schumann’s article had placed on him, Brahms felt ready to take them up, with apprehension but also in the highest spirits of his life: infinitely happy and joyful.
After a brief stay in Hanover, Brahms took the train to Leipzig for more socializing and career-building. At a fashionable party a young lady observed Schumann’s chosen one with a mixture of insight and wrong guesses as “fair, delicate-looking, with clear-cut features free from all passion. Purity, innocence, naturalness, power and depth.… And yet … a thin boy’s voice which has not yet changed! And a child’s countenance that any girl might kiss without blushing.” They spoke of Jean Paul, Eichendorff, and Schiller; Brahms urged her to read E. T. A. Hoffmann and boasted, “I spend all my money on books; books are my greatest pleasure. I have read as much as I possibly could since I was quite little, and have made my way without guidance from the worst to the best.”41
In Leipzig, Brahms dutifully visited Liszt and in his company made the acquaintance of the Parisian Hector Berlioz, spiritual father of the New Germans, in town for a program of his work. Once again Liszt received Brahms graciously. Brahms in turn was untypically careful not to offend him, and found he genuinely liked New German disciple Peter Cornelius. Making a reciprocal call on the young hero with his retinue, Liszt issued an ironical invitation, with one eye on his audience: “I hope that before too much time has passed, your ‘New Paths’ will bring you again to Weimar.”42 Then at the Berlioz concert in the Gewandhaus, Brahms sat looking with disgust on Liszt and his row of grinning apostles, among them his one-time partner Eduard Reményi.
In those years, with the instinctive knowledge and poise that accompanied him all his life, Brahms seemed to understand how to promote himself. He was no opportunist but rather a brilliant careerist—in the strategies of finding a reputation and power, if not always in the person-to-person part of it. With both enemies and friends he could be curt, sarcastic, graceless, and insulting as readily as he could be kind, helpful, and entertaining. Nobody ever knew which Brahms was going to turn up, or why.
Through this visit to Leipzig, however, he remained on his best behavior. As he wrote Joachim, he had been making the rounds he should make, courting the people he needed to court:
Liszt also called upon me, with Cornelius and others. On Friday I went to see David, as well as Liszt, Berlioz, etc. On Sunday I even went to see [Neue Zeitschrift editor] Brendel … [after an ensuing salon performance arranged by Brendel43] Berlioz praised me with such infinite warmth and cordiality that the others humbly followed suit … On Monday Liszt is coming here again (very much to the disadvantage of Berlioz).44
In fact, Hector Berlioz had embraced Brahms after the performance and compared his profile to Schiller’s.45 Soon Joachim received another report from Leipzig, this time from Berlioz:
Brams [sic] has had a great success here. He made a deep impression on me the other day at Brindel’s [sic] with his scherzo and his adagio [from the F Minor Sonata]. I am grateful to you for having let me make the acquaintance of this diffident, audacious