Joseph Joachim in the context of Violin Concerto (Beethoven)

The Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin (BWV 1001–1006) are a set of six works composed by Johann Sebastian Bach. They are sometimes referred to in English as the Sonatas and Partias for Solo Violin in accordance with Bach's headings in the autograph manuscript: "Partia" (plural "Partien") was commonly used in German-speaking regions during Bach's time, whereas the Italian "partita" was introduced to this set in the 1879 Bach Gesellschaft edition, having become standard by that time. The set consists of three sonatas da chiesa in four movements and three partitas (or partias) in Baroque suite dance-form movements. The 2nd Partita is widely known for its Chaconne, considered one of the most masterful and expressive works ever written for solo violin.

The set was completed by 1720 but was not published until 1802 by Nikolaus Simrock in Bonn. Even after publication, it was largely ignored until the celebrated violinist Joseph Joachim started performing these works. Today, Bach's 'Sonatas and Partitas are an essential part of the violin repertoire, and they are frequently performed and recorded.

Johannes Brahms (/brɑːmz/; German: [joˈhanəs ˈbʁaːms] ; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) 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.

Born to a musical family in Hamburg, Brahms began composing and concertizing locally in his youth. He toured Central Europe as a pianist in his adulthood, premiering many of his own works and meeting Franz Liszt in Weimar. Brahms worked with Ede Reményi and Joseph Joachim, seeking Robert Schumann's approval through the latter. He gained both Robert and Clara Schumann's strong support and guidance. Brahms stayed with Clara in Düsseldorf, becoming devoted to her amid Robert's insanity and institutionalization. The two remained close, lifelong friends after Robert's death. Brahms never married, perhaps in an effort to focus on his work as a musician and scholar. He was a self-conscious, sometimes severely self-critical composer.

Johannes Kreisler is the name of a character in three novels by E.T.A. Hoffmann: Kreisleriana (1813), Johannes Kreisler, des Kapellmeisters Musikalische Leiden (1815), and The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr together with a fragmentary Biography of Kapellmeister Johannes Kreisler on Random Sheets of Waste Paper (1822). He appears briefly in The Golden Pot (1814) and in some of Hoffmann's journalism as well.

The moody, asocial composer Kreisler, Hoffmann's alter ego, is a musical genius whose creativity is stymied by an excessive sensibility. The character inspired Robert Schumann's Kreisleriana for piano, op. 16 (1838), and the first movement of György Kurtág's Hommage à R. Sch. op. 15/d (merkwürdige Pirouetten des Kapellmeisters Johannes Kreisler), for clarinet, viola, and piano. In the manuscript of Brahms's Variations on a Theme by Schumann, Op. 9, he marked each variation with a B for Brahms or a Kr for Kreisler, modeling this practice on the two alter egos Schumann created for himself, "Florestan", which for Schumann represented the passionate and outgoing side of his nature and "Eusebius", the withdrawn, reflective side. Brahms's identification with his alter ego 'Johannes Kreisler Junior' would continue until at least 1860, with a number of manuscripts being dedicated to this alias and with the composer often being addressed as such by his friends Julius Otto Grimm and Joseph Joachim.