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 “On Johannes Brahms”: “A 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.”