The Compleat Brahms: A Guide to the Musical Works of Johannes Brahms

The 1997 centennial of Brahms's death has intensified interest among concertgoers and music lovers in the composer's prodigious body of work.

For all those eager to delve more deeply into Brahms's music, The Compleat Brahms is an indispensable companion. In a single volume that covers every work written by Brahms, leading scholars from across the country provide details of each work's composition and discuss its important stylistic features. Interspersed are fascinating essays ― such as "Brahms, Joachim, and the Schumanns" ― that bring the composer and his contemporaries to life. Much more than a collection of program notes, The Compleat Brahms vividly portrays the work and world of one of the giants of Western music history.

Leon Botstein is president of Bard College and director of the American Symphony Orchestra. Among his publications are Music and Its Public and Jefferson's Children: Learning and the Promise of a Democratic Culture.