Brahms Johannes

The German composer Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) was a great wine lover. He particularly appreciated wines from the Rheingau and often had samples sent to him. He composed his Third Symphony (No. 3 in F major, op. 90), which was performed for the first time in 1884, in the Rheingau and stayed at the home of the winery owner Rudolf von Beckerath in Wiesbaden in the summer of 1883. The fact that Brahms immediately felt at home in the informal atmosphere of this house was also due to the fact that the owner of the house was a good amateur violinist and his wife Laura was an excellent piano player. Brahms was a gourmet and loved good food and wine. Even during his first concert tour as a twenty-year-old, his mother tried to lure her son back to his native Hamburg with good food; "She wanted to get chocolate and eggnog. There would be redcurrant grits and berry pancakes to go with it." The wife of a Viennese industrialist, Olga von Miller, provided him with lobster, salmon trout, veal escalope, chicken breast, pheasant and saddle of venison. Later, she sent the terminally ill Brahms meat puree to his house every day. But even more important to him than physical pleasure was always the music. Incidentally, this is used in winemaking by some producers who believe that the sound has a positive effect.