Composer of the Week

After the shattering suicide attempt of his mentor Robert Schumann, Brahms didn't publish a new work for nearly six years - a wretched period in the career of music's new hottest property. Yet the flirty attentions of the composer's much-beloved Hamburg Ladies' Choir finally rejuvenated his creative juices in 1859, at the tender age of 26. In this second programme episode, Donald Macleod explores Brahms's renewed creative maturity, beginning with a rare work for 'his ladies' accompanied by harp and horns.