Clarinet Quintet in B Minor

Aged only 57, with his still-youthful good looks hidden under swathes of facial hair, and his naturally airy voice trained down an octave, in 1890 Brahms entered quietly into retirement having completed his Second String Quintet. For a while it seemed as though he might go through with it, but a year later he was so beguiled by the playing of German clarinettist Richard Mühlfeld that he composed not just one but four new works for him, all of a decidedly nostalgic hue: two clarinet sonatas, a Clarinet Trio and a Clarinet Quintet. The Quintet (1891), which has a Schubertian tendency to switch unsettlingly between major and minor modes, opens in a reflective, wistful manner, as though the music is being observed through an early morning mist. Even the march-like second theme, which momentarily disturbs the music’s autumnal flow, is ultimately transformed into a gentle legato haze during the central development section. There follows an “Adagio” tinged with regret, enhanced by the use of muted strings, and an all-too-brief intermezzo, whose serene dovetailing of contrasted thematic material ranks among Brahms’ most inspired creations. The final theme and five variations brings the work full circle with a haunting reminiscence of the work’s opening bars, before closing poignantly in the minor key.