Classical Music | Clarinet Music

Recorded on 09/09/2008, uploaded on 01/27/2009

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Brahms composed his two sonatas for the clarinet for the principal clarinetist of the Meiningen orchestra, Richard Mühlfeld. These two sonatas, published as op. 120, with the Clarinet Trio in A minor, op. 114 and the B minor Clarinet Quintet, op. 115 were Brahms’s last chamber works. They have since become cornerstones of the clarinet repertoire. Brahms also published alternate versions of the works for viola and piano, which became the first published sonatas for that instruments, as well as, versions for the violin.

The F minor sonata, unlike its counterpart in E flat major, follows an orthodox four movement design. The appassionata first movement, despite its lyrical melodies, invokes the stormy nature Brahms had always associated with that key. Like many of Brahms’s sonata forms, the formal divisions of the movement are difficult to distinguish.

The two middle movements blend together quite well, as both are in A flat major. The first, marked Andante un poco Adagio, is a kind of Nocturne in a ternary form, though its middle section is closely derived from the opening melody. The following movement is an Intermezzo in the style of an Austrian Ländler. The final movement, a Vivace rondo in F major, is full of energy and youthfulness, even though Brahms was sixty-one years old when he composed it.       Joseph DuBose

Sonata for Clarinet and Piano No. 1 in F minor       Johannes Brahms

Brahms composed his two sonatas for the clarinet for the principal clarinetist of the Meiningen orchestra, Richard Mühlfeld. These two sonatas, published as op. 120, with the Clarinet Trio in A minor, op. 114 and the B minor Clarinet Quintet, op. 115 were Brahms's last chamber works. They have since become cornerstones of the clarinet repertoire. Brahms also published alternate versions of the works for viola and piano, which became the first published sonatas for that instruments, as well as, versions for the violin.

The F minor sonata, unlike its counterpart in E flat major, follows an orthodox four movement design. The appassionata first movement, despite its lyrical melodies, invokes the stormy nature Brahms had always associated with that key. Like many of Brahms's sonata forms, the formal divisions of the movement are difficult to distinguish.

The two middle movements blend together quite well, as both are in A flat major. The first, marked Andante un poco Adagio, is a kind of Nocturne in a ternary form, though its middle section is closely derived from the opening melody. The following movement is an Intermezzo in the style of an Austrian Ländler. The final movement, a Vivace rondo in F major, is full of energy and youthfulness, even though Brahms was sixty-one years old when he composed it.

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.