equal to the dilemma. Requesting Remenyi to tune his violin a
half tone higher, making it a whole tone above the piano, he then,
at sight, transposed the Beethoven Sonata they were to play. It was
really a great feat, but Johannes performed it as though it were an
every day affair.

The next place was Luneburg and there the young musician had such
success that a second concert was at once announced. Two were next
given at Hildesheim. Then came Leipsic, Hanover and after that Weimer,
where Franz Liszt and his retinue of famous pupils held court. Here
Johannes became acquainted with Raff, Klindworth, Mason, Pruekner and
other well-known musicians.

By this time his relations with Remenyi had become somewhat irksome
and strained and he decided to break off this connection. One morning
he suddenly left Weimar, and traveled to Goettingen. There he met
Joseph Joachim, whom he had long wished to know, and who was the
reigning violinist of his time. Without any announcement, Johannes
walked in on the great artist, and they became fast friends almost
at once. Joachim had never known what it was to struggle; he had had
success from the very start; life had been one long triumph, whereas
Johannes had come from obscurity and had been reared in privation. At
this time Johannes was a fresh faced boy, with long fair hair and deep
earnest blue eyes. Wuellner, the distinguished musician of Cologne,
thus describes him: "Brahms, at twenty, was a slender youth, with
long blond hair and a veritable St. John's head, from whose eyes shone
energy and spirit."

Johannes was at this time deeply engaged on his piano Sonata in F
minor, Op. 5. He had already written two other piano sonatas, as yet
little known. The Op. 5, is now constantly heard in concert rooms,
played by the greatest artists of our time.

In disposition Hannes was kindly and sincere; as a youth merry and
gay. A friend in Duesseldorf, where he now spent four weeks, thus
describes him:

"He was a most unusual looking young musician, hardly more than a boy,
in his short summer coat, with his high-pitched voice and long fair
hair. Especially fine was his energetic, characteristic mouth, and his
earnest, deep gaze. His constitution was thoroughly healthy; the most
strenuous mental exercise hardly fatigued him and he could go to sleep
at any hour of the day he pleased. He was apt to be full of pranks,
too. At the piano he dominated by his characteristic, powerful, and
when nece