The Clarinet Quintet, Op. 115, employs an 'old-fashioned' construction of variations, transforming its four-movement form into a series of metamorphoses of the initial material.
Instruments
Richard von Mühlfeld, the clarinettist of the Meiningen orchestra, drew Brahms's attention to the clarinet, which Brahms considered the 'dreamiest instrument of the woodwind family'.
Performer Biography
The Pražák Quartet, a Bohemian ensemble, was founded while its members were students at the Prague Conservatory and won the First Prize at the Evian International Competition in 1978.
Performer Biography
Pascal Moraguès has been the first Solo Clarinet with the Orchestre de Paris since 1981 and is a professor at the National Music Conservatory in Paris since 1995.
Composition History
Brahms's String Quartet in C minor, Op. 51 No. 1, was completed in the summer of 1873 after more than ten years of preliminary sketches.
Composer Biography
Brahms only began to feature the clarinet as an essential instrument in his compositions during his 'golden autumn', singing the melancholy resignation of an ageing man.
Composition History
The Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op. 115, was written in Ischl during the summer of 1891 and first performed privately by its dedicatee, Richard von Mühlfeld, and the Joachim Quartet.
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