I LOVE Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert – but there is something about Brahms that gets right into my heart and somehow causes me anguish. I can’t explain it, but I can hardly bear to listen to it. Some recommendation!
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) wrote his Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op 115, in 1891. Apparently the previous year he was considering retiring from composing after a successful career, but his admiration for the clarinettist Richard Mühlfeld revived his interest. He wrote four works for him, of which this is one. However his rate of output slowed from then on and he died six years later aged 63.