Brahms Museum — Attraction in Hamburg

The museum is housed in a very picturesque and sleepy part of Hamburg's old city. When I arrived there around noon there was literally nobody on the street, and about 5 to 7 people in the museum itself. The building is not where Brahms lived, but it's nearby his birthplace. His real birthplace got destroyed in 1943 during Allied bombings.

The Brahms museum itself is a bit of a mess. It's just 4 pretty small rooms containing scattered memorabilia, photos, and other documents, very few of which are originals. Most of all, I sensed a lacked of a clear narrative. I felt kind of lost looking at all of the gathered stuff, and Brahms felt to me as distant as before I had spent the 20 minutes inside. You've got admire the organisers' preference for cut-and-paste techniques using scissors for displaying their texts and images, though.

However, adjacent to the building is another one housing a further museum for Telemann, C.P.E. Bach, Mendelssohn and Mahler, which is way better in terms of presentation.

The largest portion was dedicated to Mendelssohn, the one I personally was the least interested in, although I did find captivating the part about Felix being against Fanny publishing her work and the twisted logic behind his decision. I gained a lot of appreciation for Telemann's works, which I had not known were so diverse. Musical examples were plentiful and well-chosen. The C.P.E. Bach part has both a clavichord and a harpsichord on display, which visitors were allowed to play. I didn't play myself, but a few half-talented Asian kids played on them. This experience further deepened my fascination with the harpsichord, which in person sounds even richer than what I heard on recordings until now. The exhibition also has a good explanation of the Empfindsamkeit philosophical current C.P.E. was part of.

There wasn't much of note in the Mahler part of the museum, except the aspect of him being of the first of his generation to buy a bicycle. In one corner was also a Welte-Mignon player piano, along with audio examples of Mahler's own “digital” recordings from the early 1900s, but it seems the museum forgot to put up an explanation card for...

Very informative and nice museum located in the composers' quarter - lots of interesting exhibits and very cool to have the chance to see a Tafelklavier which was owned by Brahms and upon which Brahms himself played. The staff were very friendly and knowledgeable and although we only had about half an hour it was definitely...

Words cannot describe the incredible time we had at this museum and the neighbouring one. The guides were spectacularly well versed and genuinely thoughtful. Thank you to Renate and our guide Ulrich for the incredible hospitality to myself and my grandmother Meriel. We felt right at...