Steve Schwartz <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>Obviously Brahms did play for him.  I doubt, however, he was playing
>from printed editions, since the quartets, for example, were pulbished
>in the 1860s.  Maybe he was playing from manuscripts.

Brahms did indeed play for Schumann, having walked up to his door,
knocked, and introduced himself nervously.  The older man agreed to hear
him play, invited him in, and began to listen.  Within minutes, Schumann
rushed from the room shouting for his wife, and said, "And you, young
man, will start again from the beginning." They listened amazed as he
played "piece after piece" (Chap.4, The Eagle's Wings, of "Johannes
Brahms, A Biography," by Jan Swafford, 1997.) Schumann's diary note that
day was "Visit from Brahms (a genius).

Ken Greenwood, Nelson, BC