Johannes Brahms | Clarinet Sonatas Op.120 | Clarinet and Piano

Description

Johannes Brahms (1833 – 97) wrote the Sonatas for Clarinet (or Viola) and Piano op. 120 during the summer of 1894 in Ischl, directly motivated by a renewed encounter with Richard Mühlfeld, the clarinettist of the Meiningen Hofkapelle. Mühlfeld’s incomparable playing had already inspired Brahms to compose the Clarinet Trio op. 114 and the Clarinet Quintet op. 115 in 1891. Sketches have come down to us – which is very rare for Brahms – of the first and third movements of the f-minor Sonata. The likewise preserved autograph scores, probably the first complete versions of the two pieces, and the clarinet parts written out by the composer himself, were finished by the second half of August 1894 at the latest. On 26 August Brahms invited Mühlfeld to come for a visit in Ischl but only revealed the reason in a postcard from 30 August: “I was not so preposterous as to write a clarinet concerto for you! If everything goes well, there will be two modest sonatas with piano!!!???” (Imogen Fellinger, Johannes Brahms und Richard Mühlfeld, in: BrahmsStudien, ed. by the Johannes-BrahmsGesellschaft, vol. 4, Hamburg, 1981, p. 86). Three weeks later, Mühlfeld met with Brahms in Berchtesgaden, where in the period between the 19th and 25th September the first rehearsals and private performances of the two Sonatas took place