Without craftsmanship, inspiration is a mere reed shaken in the wind.

Meeting Joachim and Liszt

He began to compose quite early in life but later destroyed most copies of his first works; for instance Louise Japha a fellow-pupil of Marxsen reported a piano sonata that Brahms had played or improvised at the age of 11 had been destroyed. He destroyed many early works – including a Violin Sonata he had performed with Reményi and violinist Ferdinand David – and once claimed to have destroyed 20 string quartets before he issued his official First in 1873.  122 (1896).

He was a master of counterpoint the complex and highly disciplined art for which Johann Sebastian Bach is famous and of development a compositional ethos pioneered by Joseph Haydn Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Ludwig van Beethoven and other composers. Johannes Brahms (pronounced [joˈhanəs ˈbʁaːms]; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer and pianist. Many of his works have become staples of the modern concert repertoire.