In 1880, for instance, Joseph Hellmesberger, the famous Viennese violinist, teacher of Fritz Kreisler and Franz Kneisel, declared that the violin concerto of Johannes Brahms was “written not for but against the violin”, and he predicted, that it would speedily be consigned to oblivion.

That same year when Joachim introduced the work to Berlin, all the principal critics damned it unmercifully and the consequen-ces of that fiasco were that for the next decade, the major Symphony Orchestras of Europe when engaging Joachim as soloist, did so with the stipulation that he must not play the Brahms concerto.
In 1953 the conductor Eugene Ormandy states:
“With my audiences and all the violinists who play under me, the Brahms is now the most popular of all violin concertos, not excepting the Beethoven.”

 

Johannes Brahms

“I will not find my true place in musical history until at least half a century after I am gone. Bach died in 1750 and he was completely forgotten until Mendelssohn revived him, more than seventyfive years later. And it was more than a hundred years after his death that Joachim succeeded in popu-larizing his monumental works for violin alone.

Also the stupendous Beethoven violin concerto was neglected for fully fifty years after his death until Joachim revealed its wonders to the musical world. No composition in our day has been more reviled than my own violin concerto; Joachim and I brought it out at the Gewandhaus sixteen years ago, and still the music societies, when they engage Joachim as soloist, do so with the stipulation that he must not play my concerto. I have put new vine into old bottles and the Philistines cannot forgive me for that. I know that the violin con-certo will find its real place, but it will at least take five decades, and it is much the same with my symphonies, piano concertos and many other works.”

                              Brahms

“Brahms has been dead ten years but he still has many detractors, even among the best musicians and critics. I predict, however, that as time goes on, he will be more and more appreciated, while most of my works will be more and more neglected. Fifty years hence, he will loom up as one of the supremely great composers of all time, while I will be remembered chiefly for having written my G minor violin concerto.

Brahms was a far greater composer than I am for various reasons. First of all he was much more original. He always went his own way. He cared not at all about the public reaction or what the critics wrote. The great fiasco of his D minor piano concerto would have discouraged most composers. Not Brahms! Furthermore, the vituperation heaped upon him after Joachim introduced his violin concerto at the Leipzig Gewandhaus in 1880 would have crushed me.
Another factor which militated against me was economic necessity. I had a wife and children to support and educate. I was compelled to earn money with my compoitions.
Therefore, I had to write works that were pleasing and easily under- stood. I never wrote down to the public; my artistic conscience would not permit me to do that. I always composed good music but it was music that sold readily.
There was never anything to quarrel about in my music as there was that in Brahms. I never outraged the critics by those wonderful, conflicting rhythms, which are so characteristic of Brahms. Nor would I have dared to leave out sequences of steps in progressing from one key to another, which often makes Brahm’s modulations so bold and startling. Neither did I venture to paint in such dark colours, à la Rembrandt, as he did.
All this, and much more, militated against Brahms in his own day, but these very attributes will contribute to his stature fifty years from now, because they proclaim him a composer of marked originality. I consider Brahms one of the greatest personalities in the entire annals of music.”

                           Max Bruch