Composed 1891 (arr. Wosner); 25 minutes

“The clarinet cannot be blown more beautifully,” remarked 58-year-old Johannes Brahms of Richard Mühlfeld, a self-taught clarinetist at the Meiningen court. Originally a violinist, Mühlfeld became renowned for his refined sound and elegant phrasing, qualities he drew from his Müller-system clarinet with its light, sweet melodic tone. When Brahms heard him in March 1891, the composer had already announced his retirement, fearing a decline in his creativity. Yet Mühlfeld’s ‘vocal’ playing rekindled Brahms’s inspiration, leading him to compose a trio, a quintet and two sonatas that would enrich his chamber music legacy.

Completed within months, the Clarinet Trio and Clarinet Quintet premièred together on December 12, 1891, in Berlin, with Mühlfeld performing alongside Brahms and members of the Joachim Quartet. Together with the two 1894 sonatas, these four works for clarinet represent Brahms at the height of his powers, blending thematic ingenuity with emotional depth.

The cello’s simple opening arpeggio establishes an A minor atmosphere of nostalgia and longing that permeates the work. Throughout, Brahms refines his extraordinary ability to weave contemplative music from the compressed motivic ideas. The slow movement has a calmness and serenity that is striking even among slow movements by Brahms. Clarinet and cello weave intricate contrapuntal threads, overlapping registers and sonorities with great subtlety. A graceful waltz follows, laced, perhaps, with a little humor, as if Brahms is gently parodying his own Liebeslieder waltzes—nostalgia for a vanished past tempered by a knowing awareness of the present. The finale, highly compressed and rhythmically taut, concludes the work with fiery intensity.