In 1890 Brahms had actually resolved to stop composing. Fortunately, his acquaintance with Richard von Mühlfeld, clarinettist of the celebrated Meiningen court orchestra, led Brahms to step back from this idea in 1891, and to write, together with the Clarinet Trio op. 114, his Clarinet Quintet op. 115 – two of the greatest masterpieces for this instrument. The first public performances in Berlin and, somewhat later, in Vienna, were such a great success that Joseph Joachim acknowledged the Clarinet Quintet as one of the best works that Brahms had ever written. For the present Henle Urtext edition all relevant sources have, as always, been thoroughly analysed, and Brahms’ own corrections entered too.
Content/Details
- Clarinet Quintet for Clarinet (A), 2 Violins, Viola and Violoncello b minor op. 115
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Preface
The Quintet in b minor for Clarinet and Strings, op. 115, was written in Bad Ischl in the summer of 1891 at the same time as the Trio in a minor for Clarinet, Violoncello, and Piano, op. 114. Brahms had just met Richard von Mühlfeld, the clarinettist of the Meiningen Court Orchestra, and had become reacquainted with several clarinet pieces by Carl Maria von Weber and … more
Critical Commentary
About the composer
Johannes Brahms
His significant output comprises chamber music, piano works, numerous choral compositions and songs (including settings of folk-song lyrics), as well as large-scale orchestral works in the 1870s and 1880s. His compositions are characterized by the process of developing variation. He is considered an antithesis to the New German School around Liszt, and an advocate of “absolute” music.
| 1833 | Born in Hamburg on May 7, the son of a musician. His first piano instruction with Willibald Cossel at age seven, then with Eduard Marxen; first public performances from 1843. |
| 1853 | Concert tour through German cities; he meets Schumann, who announces him as the next great composer in his essay “Neue Bahnen” (“New Paths”). A lifelong, intimate friendship develops with Clara Schumann. |
| 1854–57 | Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, Op. 15. |
| 1857–59 | Choir director, pianist, and teacher at the royal court in Detmold. |
| 1859–61 | Director of the Hamburg Women’s Choir. |
| 1860 | Manifesto against the New Germans around Liszt. |
| 1863 | Cantata “Rinaldo,” Op. 50. |
| 1863–64 | Director of the Wiener Singakademie. |
| 1868 | Partial performance in Vienna of “A German Requiem,” Op. 45 (the complete work premiered in Leipzig in 1869) |
| 1871–74 | Artistic director of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde (Society of Friends of Music) in Vienna. |
| 1873 | Haydn Variations, Op. 56a, for orchestra. |
| from 1877 | His symphonic output begins with the Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68 (begun 1862); composition of the Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 73; the Symphony No. 3 in F major, Op. 90 (1883); and Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98 (1884–85): cantabile themes, chamber-music-like style. |
| from 1878 | Travels in Italy. |
| 1878 | Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77, for Joseph Joachim. |
| 1881 | Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat major, Op. 83, with a scherzo movement. |
| 1886 | Honorary president of Vienna’s Tonkünstlerverein (Association of Musicians). |
| 1897 | Four Serious Songs, Op. 121. Dies in Vienna on April 3. |