"Mr Brüll is the Gounod of Vienna. His cardinal virtue is musical charm," commented the reviewer of Vienna's Salonblatt in November of 1889 after the successful premiere of a new violin sonata. The one so "honoured" was probably not particularly pleased, since he was fervently trying to make his opera Das goldene Kreuz (The Golden Cross) successful in various ways for over fifteen years. It finally garnering him international attention in Berlin in December 1875. But the beloved pianist (Brahms was fond of playing duets with him) and hard-working, respected composer was not a creative "show-off", but an extraordinarily sensitive introvert. Only the very attentive and perceptive were rewarded with a wealth of dramatic turns and subtle instances of beauty, as the idyllic suite and the middle two of his four violin sonatas demonstrate. Mindfulness, which is so often cited today, becomes an event here.