A01=John Worthen
Agathe von Siebold
Alto Rhapsody
Author_John Worthen
Category=AVL
Category=AVN
Category=DNBF
Clara Schumann
Composer
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German Requiem
Hamburg
Music
Pianist
Robert Schumann
Teacher
Product details
- ISBN 9781836391975
- Dimensions: 130 x 200mm
- Publication Date: 01 Jun 2026
- Publisher: Reaktion Books
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
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Johannes Brahms is often cast as repressed or emotionally distant. This nuanced biography by acclaimed biographer John Worthen reveals a more complex and human figure – brilliant, passionate and deeply committed both to his art and to those he loved. Brahms’s lifelong devotion to Clara Schumann shaped much of his personal and creative life, while his refusal to conform to social expectations kept him at odds with the genteel world around him. Raised in modest circumstances, he remained proudly working class even as he became one of the greatest composers of his time, with works ranging from the intimacy of the ‘Alto Rhapsody’ to the humane power of ‘A German Requiem’. Worthen shows us the man behind the music – blunt, brilliant and fiercely alive.
John Worthen is Emeritus Professor of D. H. Lawrence Studies at the University of Nottingham. He is the author of many biographical books, including Robert Schumann: Life and Death of a Musician (2007) and The Life of Percy Bysshe Shelley (2019).
