Early in 1879, I think some time in January, Brahms came to Leipzig to conduct his Violin Concerto - played of course by Joachim, who had just been introducing it at Amsterdam, and was much upset at having to tune down his ears again to normal pitch, after having learned, as he said, to play it apparently in F# major in Holland - a hard feat! I understood then why pitch always has a tendency to rise, for, wedded as Joachim was to orthodoxy in all things, I nevertheless caught a few remarks about "increased brilliancy," and so on. That Concerto, which has never been among my favourite Brahms works, may for aught I know be child's play to students nowadays; at that time however the technique was unfamiliar and not considered favourable to the instrument. Wags called it "Concerto against (instead of for) the Violin." But I fancy my musical sensibility was blurred in the wild excitement of at last getting to know the great man himself.