In many ways, Johannes Brahms (1833–1897) was the inheritor of Beethoven’s genius, prompting some music historians to refer to Brahms’s first symphony as “Beethoven’s tenth.” This is not to diminish the work of the great nineteenth-century composer, who left an enduring corpus of works. Brahms demonstrated that classicism continued to have artistic validity—and was not incompatible with—the romanticism of the late nineteenth century.