Replies

It’s time for the Seattle Chamber Music Festival! Our first concert is tomorrow, Saturday, June 29. Thanks to the miracle of the Internet, you can hear the concerts live at the website of KING-FM. I’ll be providing programs and links to the concerts throughout the summer festival. As we approach each concert, I’ll introduce one piece per evening at the Canteen with commentary about the piece. On concert nights, I’ll introduce the musicians.

In 1891, when Johannes Brahms was 58, he decided that his String Quintet in G, Op. 111, would be his valedictory piece. “Let the youngsters take over, “ he said in his usual gruff manner. But that summer he went to Meiningen to hear the orchestra, one of the best in Europe, and while there he heard the orchestra’s clarinettist, Richard Mühlfeld, play the Weber Clarinet Concerto. Brahms went backstage, and what developed was a strong professional relationship. “Miss Clarinet”, as Brahms called his friend, could do things with the instrument that no one had ever done before, and this prompted Brahms to write the four pieces that form the apex of the clarinet chamber repertory: a quintet, a trio and two sonatas.

Brahms hired his old crony, violinist Joseph Joachim and his string quartet, to back Mühlfeld at rehearsals of the quintet in Meiningen. On December 1, 1891, the guys premiered the quintet in Berlin to a tumultuous reception. People understood immediately that they were hearing a musical milestone, a masterpiece written from the heart.

The Quintet for Clarinet and Strings in B minor, Op. 115, is one of the greatest of Brahms’ chamber works, a song of regret, sweet sadness, nostalgia – and even love. It’s a review of one’s life before an open grave and one of the great five-handkerchief pieces. I recommend having a box of tissues handy.

That sinuous figuration that opens this sonata allegro movement is called a melisma, and it dominates the first subject. The clarinet takes up a theme that runs from the bottom to the top of its range, and it’s sad and nostalgic, especially at the cadence at 1:03.
At 1:32, the second subject begins in D Major, stated by the strings, and when the clarinet enters at 2:11, ever so shyly, it brings out the first handkerchief.
At 3:04, the exposition repeats.
At 6:00, development begins: a passionate breaking apart and rebuilding of the first subject. Then at 7:08, development of the second subject proceeds with great calmness.
At 9:13, the recapitulations begins, and as usual Brahms re-composes his recap.
At 10:11, he recaps the second subject, working it through several keys.
At 11:38 he takes the first subject through an emotional climax, then brings back the melisma, resolving it quietly and sadly. The second handkerchief comes out.

Brahms: Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op. 115, first movement