Editing Johannes Brahms (section)

====Collaboration and travel====
In 1850 Brahms met the Hungarian violinist [[Ede Reményi]] and accompanied him in a number of recitals over the next few years. This was his introduction to "gypsy-style" music such as the ''[[csardas]]'', which was later to prove the foundation of his most lucrative and popular compositions, the two sets of ''[[Hungarian Dances (Brahms)|Hungarian Dances]]'' (1869 and 1880).{{sfn|Swafford|1999|pp=56, 62}}{{sfn|Musgrave|1999b|loc=45}} 1850 also marked Brahms's first contact (albeit a failed one) with Robert Schumann; during Schumann's visit to Hamburg that year, friends persuaded Brahms to send the former some of his compositions, but the package was returned unopened.{{sfn|Swafford|1999|pp=56–57}}

In 1853 Brahms went on a concert tour with Reményi, visiting the violinist and composer [[Joseph Joachim]] at [[Hanover]] in May. Brahms had earlier heard Joachim playing the solo part in [[violin Concerto (Beethoven)|Beethoven's Violin Concerto]] and been deeply impressed.{{sfn|Swafford|1999|p=49}} Brahms played some of his own solo piano pieces for Joachim, who remembered fifty years later: "Never in the course of my artist's life have I been more completely overwhelmed".{{sfn|Swafford|1999|p=64}} This was the beginning of a friendship which was lifelong, albeit temporarily derailed when Brahms took the side of Joachim's wife in their divorce proceedings of 1883.{{sfn|Swafford|1999|pp=494–495}}

Brahms admired Joachim as a composer, and in 1856 they were to embark on a mutual training exercise to improve their skills in (in Brahms's words) "double [[counterpoint]], [[canon (music)|canons]], [[fugue]]s, preludes or whatever".{{sfn|Musgrave|2000|p=67}} Bozarth notes that "products of Brahms's study of counterpoint and early music over the next few years included "dance pieces, preludes and fugues for organ, and neo-[[Renaissance]] and neo-[[Baroque music|Baroque]] choral works".<ref name=bozarth2 />

After meeting Joachim, Brahms and Reményi visited [[Weimar]], where Brahms met [[Franz Liszt]], [[Peter Cornelius]], and [[Joachim Raff]], and where Liszt performed Brahms's Op. 4 Scherzo [[Sight-reading|at sight]]. Reményi claimed that Brahms then slept during Liszt's performance of his own [[Sonata in B minor (Liszt)|Sonata in B minor]]; this and other disagreements led Reményi and Brahms to part company.{{sfn|Swafford|1999|pp=67, 71}}