Classical Music | Ensemble Music

Recorded on 04/15/2008, uploaded on 01/12/2009

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Clarinet Trio, Op. 114                         Johannes Brahms

        Allegro; Adiago; Andantino grazioso; Allegro

In 1891, Brahms was nearing the end of his life, and had not composed a single work in over a year, after the completion of all his symphonies and concertos. He was in the process of drawing up his will when Richard Muhlfeld, principal clarinetist of the Meiningen Orchestra, was referred to him for an audition by conductor Fritz Steinbach. Having never written for the clarinet in his chamber music, Brahms found his creative drive restored by his reaction to Muhlfeld's playing. Within a year, Brahms completed his Clarinet Trio, Op. 114 and the celebrated Clarinet Quintet, Op. 115. He wrote his two clarinet sonatas three years later, the last he would compose for any instrument.

The clarinet was popular among Romantic composers, and Brahms took to the instrument even more strongly because its mellow shading lent itself strongly to the reflective, sometimes melancholy tone of his work. In contrast to Mozart's Kegelstatt Trio for clarinet, viola and piano, Brahms's use of the cello gives the piece a much darker color. The Trio is composed in four movements of more concise proportions than the Quintet, and contains understated expression, reminiscence, and homage to techniques used by earlier composers that Brahms revered late in his life. This work anchored Earth, Fifth House's first subscription concert of this season, because of its earthy, autumnal quality.     Fifth House Ensemble

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Clarinet Trio in A minor, op. 114                      Johannes Brahms

Brahms's last chamber works are the four he wrote for the clarinetist Richard Mühlfeld. These four works contain Brahms's last contributions to nearly all of the forms that he had triumphed-only the Vier ernste Gesänge, op. 121 postdates the composition of the these four chamber works.

The Trio for clarinet, cello and piano in A minor was composed simultaneously with the Quintet for clarinet and string quartet during Brahms's summer stay at Ischl in 1891. Brahms thought highly of the Trio although it has never enjoyed the public success of the B minor Quintet. Unlike the Quintet, it embraces the broad emotional range of Brahms's other chamber works, like the Piano Trio in C minor which only predates it by five years. When compared to the uniform melancholy expression and gentle lyricism of the Quintet, perhaps it is understandable the public has never embraced the Trio in the same way. Furthermore, due to the contrasting sonorities of the three instruments involved, the Trio also lacks the homogenous sonority of the Quintet. Brahms, however, uses this to his advantage. Malcolm McDonald even remarked that "stretches of the work resembles a cello sonata with clarinet obbligato."

The work is cast in a typical Brahmsian four-movement pattern. Like several of his other works, the first movement begins with a kind of introduction, though in the same tempo and time signature as the exposition proper. The passionate A minor theme is offset by a lyrical E minor second subject. The development section which follows derives new melodic ideas from the material of the exposition.

The brief D major Adagio (it is only fifty-four bars in length) shows Brahms's amazing ability to pack significant musical substance into a brief amount of time. It is an oddly balanced ternary form with the opening melody making only a momentary return at the of close the movement. The middle section, a sort of development, displays Brahms's masterful ability at motivic development.

An Andantino intermezzo in A major replaces the usual scherzo third movement. It centers around three related melodic ideas and takes on the character of a delightful waltz. The last movement returns to A minor and assumes the role of a scherzo-like finale. The movement possesses a rhythmic vitality due to the constant exchange of 2/4 and 6/8 meters. The more relaxed second subject enters in 9/8, though it is interrupted by the duple meter of the first theme. Brahms uses his favorite motif of descending thirds to transverse several quick modulations in the terse development section. A dramatic coda brings the work to a close.    Joseph DuBose

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.