I have never warmed to Brahms, who seems incredibly muddy to me. IMO, he is the single most overrated composer in history. I would not be surprised if his music became very rare on the performance circuit in 10 years (save for the Academic Festival Overture, perhaps). Van Bulow did a great disservice to music when he said: "The three Bs--Bach, Beethoven and Brahms." I'm afraid Johann does not belong in the same paragraph with the other two, much less the same page.
That's quite a surprise to me because there is absolutely no fluff in that piece at all, but once again, the world would be pretty boring if we all liked the same things. The German Requiem is one of my personal favorites. I don't think his music will ever be taken off the performance circuit, at least not in the next hundred years. There isn't an orchestra in this country that doesn't perform the Brahms "cycle" every few years or so. The fact that very little music written for the concert hall today is inspiring or even entertaining will assure this.
George Bernard Shaw agreed with you. He thought Brahms a great writer of lieder, but a failure at orchestral works.
Shaw probably wrote more as a music critic than in any other way. A complete collection of his very often poisonous reviews was published a few years ago.
So9
Have ever you heard the Brahms 3rd and 4th symphonies? There's a not a shred of muddiness in them. The finale of the 4th is spine tingling. Simply beyond compare. And the violin concerto and 2nd piano concerto may be the best in their genre of the 19th century. He's survived all manner of fashion taste and will continue to endure.