Demonstrating Brahms's increasing mastery of large orchestral form, the Variations presaged his major works, which are among the finest expressions in all music literature. His masterpieces include the grandiloquent Symphony no. 1 in C Minor (1876); the gentler, more mellifluous Symphony no. 2 in D Major (1877); the Academic Festival Overture (1880), incorporating German student songs; the somber Tragic Overture (1881); the poetic Symphony no. 3 in F Major (1883); and the Symphony no. 4 in E Minor (1885), with its brilliant and emotionally overwhelming finale.
All these works display a tightly knit structure, stemming from the Viennese classical tradition. Unlike his contemporaries, Brahms shunned exploitation of new harmonic effects and new tone colors for their own sake. He concerned himself rather with creating music of inherent unity, utilizing new or unusual effects only to enhance internal structural nuances. Thus, his best works contain no extraneous passages; each theme, each figure, each modulation is implicit in all that has preceded it. The classicism of Brahms was a unique phenomenon in its day, entirely at odds with the trends in contemporary music as represented especially by the German composer Richard Wagner. Although Brahms revived a tradition to which no important composer since Ludwig van Beethoven had adhered, he was not wholly isolated from his own milieu, and the fiery emotional range of the romantic spirit permeates his music.
Unfortunately, little is known of Brahms's methods of work. A merciless self-critic, he burned all that he wrote before the age of 19 as well as some sketches of later masterpieces. It is known that he frequently reworked pieces over a period of 10 to 20 years, and before achieving the final form he often transcribed them for several different combinations of instruments.
Brahms wrote in every medium except opera. His numerous other important works include Schicksalslied (Song of Destiny, 1871), a musical setting of a poem by the German poet Friedrich Hölderlin, scored for chorus and orchestra; the Violin Concerto in D Major (1878), a classic in the violin repertoire; 3 string quartets; 5 trios; a clarinet quintet; numerous other chamber works for various combinations of instruments; and more than 150 songs. Brahms died on April 13, 1897, in Vienna.