A focal point of the Vienna research group of the Johannes Brahms Gesamtausgabe (JBG) – besides editing Brahms’s musical works – is the systematic analysis of his reception in the Viennese press between 1862 and 1902. Contemporary journals and daily newspapers provide documentation that can be used to trace first performances, performance venues and dates as well as performers. Furthermore, critiques and extensive reviews allow to outline performance profiles and the ways in which musical works were perceived by contemporaries. Newspaper reports also reveal hitherto unknown biographical details about Brahms’s life.
Thanks to research funding by the City of Vienna since 2016, nine significant Viennese newspapers and periodicals have been explored, including politically polarizing media – such as Catholic-conservative, German-national and social-democratic papers: Blätter für Musik, Theater und Kunst, Wiener Zeitung, Neues Fremden-Blatt, Neue Wiener Musik-Zeitung, Neues Wiener Tagblatt, Die Presse, Das Vaterland, Arbeiter-Zeitung, and Deutsches Volksblatt. In addition to organising this information in a database, previously unknown findings are also published in the printed volumes of the Gesamtausgabe.
The current research project (2021–2022) will make part of this broad data corpus accessible to the public on the open access platform brahms-online.at by means of a database on MEI basis (Music Encoding Initiative). The comprehensive systematisation and categorisation already undertaken will provide a reliable basis for further research – be it the reception of Brahms’s works in Viennese concert life, be it concerts or events in which the composer participated, but also regarding socio-cultural and political issues in connection with an eminent figure of cultural life in Vienna at that time.
Jaroš, Monika; Papadopoulou, Vasiliki (25.10.2023) Wiener Brahms-Rezeption 1862–1902. Posterpräsentation bei: ACDH-CH Projektbörse auf der Konferenz „Forschung zum kulturellen Erbe im digitalen Zeitalter“ (Austrian Centre for Digital Humanities and Cultural Heritage (ACDH-CH) der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften (ÖAW)), Wien/AUSTRIA <https://www.oeaw.ac.at/acdh/events/chda>.
Jaroš, Monika; Papadopoulou, Vasiliki (13.11.2021) A Monument for Brahms in Vienna of the Fin de Siècle. Vortrag bei: Music, Monuments, and Memory Symposium (The Centre for Death and Life Studies, Durham University), Durham (virtual event)/UNITED KINGDOM.
Papadopoulou, Vasiliki (03.02.2019) The “new Johannes in the tone desert” or Brahms on his way “to immortality”? Sociological Discourses in the Viennese Press around Johannes Brahms. Vortrag bei: The Intellectual Worlds of Johannes Brahms - International Conference (University of California, Irvine), Irvine/UNITED STATES.
Papadopoulou, Vasiliki (04.07.2018) Johannes Brahms as Reflected in the Wiener Zeitung. Vortrag bei: 20th Biennial International Conference on Nineteenth-Century Music (University of Huddersfield, Royal Musical Association), Huddersfield/UNITED KINGDOM <https://research.hud.ac.uk/media/assets/document/schools/mhm/programme-p.pdf>.