The premiere of the First Piano Concerto there was a particular disaster, both musically and for Brahms' personal life. The Leipzig audience, in particular, disliked his music – it wasn't enough like Mendelssohn's. In spite of his conscious efforts to write for a middle class audience, Brahms' music was considered difficult. Brahms did have a lifelong liking for popular music, including gypsy music and German folk music. There was no sympathy between Brahms and Tchaikovsky either. It was the music of Liszt and Bruckner that Brahms couldn't stand. He also thought highly of some of Mahler's music, most notably the scherzo of the Resurrection symphony. He actually regarded Wagner's music highly and sent a laurel wreath on the occasion of Wagner's death.
As far as Brahms himself is concerned, this is a myth. One of the cliches of 19 th century musical history is the hostility between the Brahmsians and the Wagnerites. Swafford has taught me many things I have not known, and some I have wondered about, since I read Karl Geiringer's biography of Brahms long ago. As a modern biography, it avoids both "pathography" and putting its subject on a pedestal, even to make him an "easier target," as Swafford puts it in the preface to an earlier biography, of Ives. As a biography of a composer, it benefits from having a composer as its author.
In terms of bringing its subject to life, this is one of the most satisfying biographies I have ever read.
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