[Triplets]

The intro to the 2nd ain't to shabby either. That soaring horn solo has had many a hornist peeing in their pants at the start of a concert, as the solo player has to kick start the whole work with a beautiful but difficult entry.
I also love the First, but the second is incomparably finer. In the wrong hands the First can sound so lugubrious, and many performances now slow the First movement to an absolute crawl. The First also shows it's origins as a Symphony that morphed into a 2 Piano Sonata and then mutated into a Concerto. It is a great, but flawed, work. In contrast the Second is a jewel of cohesion

 

[Triplets]

I'm in the suet pudding camp.

(Off topic, so you don't need to read if that troubles you.
It always amazes me when so many people on TC demonstrate so much fire and passion about Brahms. I really must be missing something, but I don't know what it is. I should try immersing myself in Brahms for a month or two, I suppose).

There are some Brahms works that I fell for on first hearing ( Symphonies 1&4, the concertos, the Horn Trio, Clarinet Quintet &Trio);some that I appreciated after repeated listening (Symphonies 2&3, Requiem, late Piano Music); and some that have never clicked for me, such as the Cello and the Violin Sonatas). My wife, otoh, instinctively love every note she ever hears of Brahms, on first hearing.