Clarinet Sonata No. 1 in F Minor

The two Clarinet Sonatas Op. 120 were Brahms’ fond farewell to the world of chamber music (he also sanctioned versions for viola). He had originally intended to bow out with his Second String Quintet in 1890, worried that he was losing his creative facility and feeling temperamentally divorced from the rising younger generation (highlighted by Richard Strauss’ early tone poems), Brahms, aged only 57, had pointedly written his will. This all changed, however, when he heard the sublime clarinettist Richard Mühlfeld (1856-1907), who inspired not only the Clarinet Trio and Quintet (both 1891), but also a pair of clarinet sonatas, which Brahms composed in 1894 while relaxing at his summer retreat in the spa town of Bad Ischl. Despite its “appassionato” marking and traditionally volatile key centre (F minor), the opening movement of Clarinet Sonata No. 1 is predominately reflective in tone, so that the dreamy “Adagio” second movement feels like a meditative reflection on the first. Following an intermezzo-like “Allegretto”, the exuberant rondo finale ends the sonata in a mood of contented affirmation.