Johannes Brahms (pictured) conducted the premiere of his Double Concerto, composed for violinist Joseph Joachim and cellist Robert Hausmann.

Johannes Brahms was a German composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor of the mid-Romantic period. His music is noted for its rhythmic vitality and freer treatment of dissonance, often set within studied yet expressive contrapuntal textures. He adapted the traditional structures and techniques of a wide historical range of earlier composers. His œuvre includes four symphonies, four concertos, a Requiem, much chamber music, and hundreds of folk-song arrangements and Lieder, among other works for symphony orchestra, piano, organ, and choir.

The Double Concerto in A minor, Op. 102, by Johannes Brahms is a concerto for violin, cello and orchestra, composed in 1887 as his last work for orchestra.

Joseph Joachim was a Hungarian violinist, conductor, composer and teacher who made an international career, based in Hanover and Berlin. A close collaborator of Johannes Brahms, he is widely regarded as one of the most distinguished violinists of the 19th century.

Robert Hausmann was a notable 19th-century German cellist who premiered important works by Johannes Brahms and Max Bruch. He was the cellist for the Joachim Quartet and taught at the Berlin Königliche Hochschule für Müsik.