Brahms had retired from composing prior to listening to Richard Mühlfeld play. Brahms may have met Mühlfeld already when Hans von Bülow was directing the Meiningen Court Orchestra. But it was Fritz Steinbach, von Bülow's successor, who brought Mühlfeld's playing to the attention of Brahms in March 1891. Brahms was very enthusiastic about Mühlfeld. That summer at Bad Ischl, he composed the Clarinet Quintet and his Clarinet Trio Op. 114, both of them for Mühlfeld. He later also composed his two Clarinet Sonatas Op. 120.
Performances
The quintet received its first private performance on 24 November 1891 in Meiningen, with Richard Mühlfeld and the Joachim Quartet, led by Joseph Joachim who often collaborated with Brahms. The public premiere was on 12 December 1891 in Berlin. It soon received performances across Europe, including London and Vienna both with the original and other ensembles.
Like the quintet by Mozart, the strings begin the piece. Only several bars after the clarinet's entry is it finally made clear that the key of the music is B minor rather than D major. This movement sets an autumnal mood for the rest of the composition. One phrase, towards the middle played by the clarinet, sounds closely related to one in the first movement of Carl Maria von Weber's Clarinet Concerto No. 1 in F minor. This was possibly inserted because when Brahms listened to Richard Mühlfeld at his recital, he was playing this concerto.
Second movement
The bowed strings are played with mutes throughout the movement. Mainly in B major, the reflective melody is first introduced by the clarinet, and is sometimes chromatic with some shifts to B minor. The middle section is in B minor, its mood recalling the gloomy atmosphere of the first movement. Here, the clarinet performs technical runs playing from all ranges. Via an agitated transition with even more modulations, the music calms down and returns to the beginningtheme, and then subsides.
Third movement
The shortest of all four, the movement begins sweetly being one of the composition's few uplifting passages. In measure 23, the clarinet and violin play as if they were talking in a conversation. It modulates back from its heart-warming D major into the darker B minor. This section is highly influenced by the first part and even ends the same except being in a meter.
Fourth movement
This movement is marked Con moto and contains a theme and five variations as do the final movements of Mozart's Clarinet Quintet and Brahms's Clarinet Sonata No. 2. Tempo varies according to the musician. The fourth variation, in B major, has a sweet melody mostly performed by the clarinet, which recalls the mood of the second movement. The fifth variation, beginning with the viola playing the melody over the pizzicato cello, is back in B minor but bears a different metrical sign till the end of the movement. The coda brings multiple themes from the first movement, and finally ends with a sudden loud B minor chord which eventually fades away.
