The history of Vienna (the "Brahms era")

Vienna (English)/Videň (Czech)/Becs (Hungarian)

These days, Vienna is known as  the capital and the largest city among nine states of Austria. Also it is often called the city of music because a lot of great musicians have lived and performed in Vienna: Mozart, Beethoven, Strauss, Schubert, and Brahms...

At first, it was settled by Celts BC 500. After them, the Romans set up a military camp, called Vindobona. It was placed where the core of the city is now.

Roman Vindobona

Later, the city has been taken by many other families or dynasties, and they have reigned the city through over a thousand years. 

Heiliges Römisches Reich, Babenberg family, Habsburg dynasty, Turkish military, Napoleon (1805 and 1909) and so on.

After Napoleon's first seizing, a congress of Vienna held in 1819 and it was conducted by "big four" :Britain, Russia, Prussia, and Austria. It was held in order to forge a balanced power in Europe countries. (The congress was the model for other organizations later such as United Nation.)

Before Brahms moved to Vienna, the city expanded beyond the first municipal District of Vienna: The Innere Stadt in 1850. Then, following the former “city wall”, the Ringstraße was built in 1858, which was a circular road surrounding the Innere Stadt. (Most sights are on the Ringstraße these days.)

Ringstraße in Vien

In 1862, Brahms went to Vienna for the first time and spent the winter time there. 

In the next year, he moved to Vienna and spent the rest of his life. Major works of Brahms were written in Vienna.

Vienna State Opera house was built in 1869 and the next year, in 1870, the Wiener Musikverein was inaugurated. The Wiener Musikverein is a concert hall that is considered as one of the finest concert halls in the world along with Boston’s Symphony Hall, and Berlin’s Konzerthaus. Two years later inauguration of the hall, Brahms was assigned as the conductor of the hall from 1972 to 1875. After this, he accepted no more formal position.

Wiener Musikverein

Brahms was buried in the largest cemetery in the world, Zentralfriedhof in 1897.

Anselm Feuerbach: the painter, the friend

Brahms loved art. He was great friends with several artists and even found his inspiration from a few of their paintings. He was particularly close to German painter, Anselm Feuerbach. They both held great admiration for one another’s crafts. Brahms admired the way that Anselm Feuerbach inserted his personality and self-conscious restraint into his work. He painted with a sense of luminosity, humility and refinement which Brahms considered to be more attractive, rather than grandiose, overdone, ideas like that of other painters of the time (particularly Hans Makart, long-time rival of Feuerbach).

After Feuerbach passed away, Brahms wanted to honor his memory by composing his orchestral/choral piece “Nanie, Opus. 82" (translated to: a funeral song). This piece is dedicated to Feuerbach’s mother for her hard work in honoring the reputations and memories of her son. 

 (I am posting a link to a performance on youtube, it totals to be about 12 minutes long, but listen to it when you get a chance... it's absolutely beautiful)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hb4qj_z4294

There is no single painting known to have inspired Brahms more than the others, the biggest inspiration was Feauerbach's life and friendship in general. I am posting some of his most well received works of art. 

The Symposium

The Mandolin Player

Iphigenia

The Garden of Ariosto