- Brahms composed this work in 1891. In 1890, an aging Brahms had declared that he was retired from composition, but he was inspired to un-retire thanks to the playing of Richard Mühlfeld, a clarinetist with the court orchestra of Meinigen. Brahms wrote his Clarinet Quintet and several other works for Mühlfeld.1
- Brahms’s other works for Mühlfeld include the Clarinet Trio, Op. 114 and Clarinet Sonata, Op. 120. These would be Brahms’s last chamber compositions.
- Mühlfeld and the Joachim Quartet played the first performance of this work privately in Meinigen, on November 24, 1819. They performed the work’s public premiere at the hall of the Berlin Singakademie on December 12 of that year.2
Sources
- George S. Bozarth and Walter Frisch, “Brahms, Johannes,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed July 7, 2021, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000051879.
- “Clarinet Quintet, Op. 115 (Brahms, Johannes),” IMSLP, accessed July 7, 2021, https://imslp.org/wiki/Clarinet_Quintet,_Op.115_(Brahms,_Johannes).
Cut IDs
40056 49074 17973 20512 23245 10512 10513 10513