BRAHMS, Johannes (1833-1897)

BRAHMS, Johannes (1833-1897)
Autograph musical quotation signed (‘Johannes Brahms’), the opening four bars of the Violin Concerto, Op.77, n.p. [Vienna], 29 January [18]96.
One page, 190 x 123mm, inscribed [to Bronislaw Huberman] ‘In freundlicher Erinnerung an Ihren vergnügten u. dankbaren Zuhörer’ [‘A friendly memento of your delighted and grateful listener…’], (browned where previously framed, two instances of staining from adhesive applied to verso, two creases, traces of mount on verso). Provenance: By descent through the family of Bronislaw Huberman (1882-1947) – Sotheby’s, 20 May 2005, lot 30.

Brahms praises a peformance of his Violin Concert by the young virtuoso Bronislaw Huberman. The Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77, one of Brahms’ mature orchestral works, was composed in 1878 for and in close collaboration with his friend, the violinist Joseph Joachim: it was premiered in Leipzig on 1 January 1879 by Joachim, with Brahms conducting, and published by Simrock later that year. On 29 January 1896, the thirteen-year-old Polish violin prodigy Bronislaw Huberman, an erstwhile student of Joachim’s, performed the Violin Concerto at a Vienna Musikverein concert in the presence of Brahms, impressing the sixty-two-year-old composer with his talent. The present manuscript bears charming witness to the meeting between the two following the concert.

Provenance
No VAT on hammer price or buyer's premium.