Brahms, Autodidacticism, and the Curious Case of the Gavotte

On 23 February 1896, after an excursion into the countryside outside Vienna, Richard Heuberger found Brahms in uncharacteristically expansive mood. Brahms spoke at length about the relative merits of Mozart and Beethoven, making it clear his sympathies lay with the former, before turning to Haydn’s “extraordinary greatness.”2 He entered his stride, however, when the conversation turned to musical education: