perceived the editorial change in Neue Zeitschrift as a slight against her husband's legacy. The young Brahms, who had been very close to the Schumanns during Robert's decline, also took up the cause. Joachim, who was a friend of both Clara and Brahms, joined them in his opposition to Liszt and the New German School. A child prodigy, Joachim at 17 had become professor of violin at the Leipzig Conservatory, where he forged close ties with Mendelssohn, the Schumanns and Ferdinand David. Two years later, he became concertmaster of the Weimar Court Orchestra under Liszt's direction. His three years in Weimar left him with poor impressions of Liszt's conducting and compositions. His opinion of Liszt's music and that of the rest of the New German School was reinforced by his correspondence with Brahms and Clara. Brahms's personal experience with Liszt had been limited to a single visit to Weimar in 1853, when he presented some of his compositions to a group that included Liszt, Peter Cornelius and Joachim Raff. After Liszt played some of Brahms's work, he performed his own B-minor Piano Sonata. Brahms was impressed neither with Liszt's music nor with that of most of the rest of the New German School. The exception was Wagner. While he, Brahms, would not attempt to dissuade his fellow conservatives from despising Wagner's music, he respected it privately, more than once he told his friends, "I am the best of Wagnerians." Joachim, like Brahms, respected Wagner's music; however, they both also agreed that Wagner's writings were far more dangerous. The critic Eduard Hanslick was very influential on the conservatives' behalf, as his view of music as "form moving in sound" meshed with their own. Associated with them at one time or another were Heinrich von Herzogenberg, Friedrich Gernsheim, Robert Fuchs, and Karl Goldmark, among others. Liszt, Wagner, and their followers The key figure on the Weimar ("New German") side was Franz Liszt. The other leading composer of the group was Richard Wagner. Other notable figures siding with Liszt were the critic Richard Pohl and composers Felix Draeseke, Julius Reubke, Karl Klindworth, William Mason and Peter Cornelius. The composer and pianist Hans von Bülow supported the Liszt-Wagner side until his wife, Liszt's daughter Cosima, left him for Wagner; he then switched his allegiance to Brahms. It was Bülow who called Brahms the third of the Three Bs and dubbed that composer's First Symphony