One of the 19th century's most important music critics, Eduard Hanslick (1825-1904) noted in his memoirs (Aus meinem Leben, vol. 2, Berlin 1880) in the section InchOn Johannes BrahmsInch InchA young Hercules at the parting of the ways. Will he turn to the left, to the utterly Romantic, to music that knows no bounds and no restraints - or to the right, on the path of our Classical composers? He has chosen the latter, and having introduced to us (in 1862) his Handel Variations, his G minor Piano Quartet, his B flat Sextet, we could no longer doubt that in Brahms we had been vouchsafed a figure who was not merely a promising genius, but a master in the noblest sense of the word. A master who had the ability to cast original, modern content in Classical form. And at the same time a piano virtuoso in the grand manner whose manly, intelligent delivery takes wing freely above consummate technique.Inch