Sonatas in F Min & Eb Op 120 Viola/Piano

Brahms had already announced his retirement from composition when in the spring of 1894 he played chamber music with the cellist Robert Hausmann and the clarinettist Richard Muhlfeld. This encounter apparently renewed his enthusiasm for Muhlfeld's much admired playing and inspired him to write two clarinet sonatas in the summer of the same year. It remains unclear when exactly Brahms drafted viola parts to his two sonatas. In any case the viola and clarinet versions of the works were first published by Simrock at the same time in 1895. Today there is no doubt about Brahms' authorship of the viola parts. They include important differences from the clarinet original in order to do justice to this string instrument.