John Worthen is Emeritus Professor of D. H. Lawrence Studies at the University of Nottingham. He is the author of many biographical books, including Robert Schumann: Life and Death of a Musician (2007) and The Life of Percy Bysshe Shelley (2019).

Brahms’s later life is well known, but we hear less about the young dynamo whom Joseph Joachim described in 1853 as “this green-gold baby tiger”. In this sympathetic and level-headed biography, John Worthen traces Brahms’s early influences, delves into the complexities of his long relationship with Clara Schumann and explores the cast of mind which led him to remain “free but lonely”. - Susan Tomes, pianist and writerThis book is very readable, well balanced and highly focused, leaving the mature master to speak for himself. Essential Brahms reading that will appeal to a wide range of readers, musical or not. - Michael Musgrave, The Juilliard School, author of A Brahms Reader