Brüll pens a short note of thanks on a mourning stationery card to an unidentified man, thanking him for a compassionate letter evidently sent at the death of one of Brüll's parents: It shows me how you, a good and loving son yourself, can put yourself in my place and feel with me the most painful loss.

Brüll's parents had been keen amateur musicians (his mother a pianist and his father a baritone) and supported their son's musical education from an early age.

Ignaz Brüll was a highly regarded pianist who lived and worked in Vienna. Johannes Brahms routinely sought Brüll as a partner for private performances of four-hand arrangements of his newest works, and Brüll in turn became both a close friend of Brahms and a central figure in his artistic circle.

Brüll was also an active composer. His best-known work, the opera Das goldene Kreuz, enjoyed some popularity in his lifetime, but was eventually banned by the Nazis and thereafter fell out of the repertory.