Sonata in E-flat Major for Viola and Piano, Opus 120, No. 2
JOHANNES BRAHMS

In the fall of 1890, Brahms decided that he was through composing. He was 57 years old, he felt that he had said the things he wanted to, and he intended that his String Quintet in G Major, completed the summer before, should be his last work. He had made vague plans to begin work on a Symphony No. 5 during a projected trip to Italy the next spring, but now he canceled plans for both the trip and for a new symphony and instead began clearing out his files, destroying old manuscripts he did not want to keep and publishing a few pieces he did. But he was fairly sure there would be no new music.

Then in 1891 Brahms met the clarinetist Richard Mühlfeld and was captivated by his playing. Mühlfeld (1856-1907) had originally joined the fine Meiningen orchestra as a violinist. He taught himself to play the clarinet and soon became the principal clarinetist of that orchestra (which gave the first performance of Brahms' Fourth Symphony) and served as principal clarinet of the Bayreuth orchestra from 1884 until 1896. So enthusiastic was Brahms about Mühlfeld's playing that he came out of retirement and began to compose for him: from 1891 came a Clarinet Trio and then the great Clarinet Quintet. Three years later, in 1894, Brahms wrote his final instrumental works for Mühlfeld, two sonatas for clarinet and piano. The clarinet and viola have similar ranges, and Brahms himself immediately arranged these sonatas for viola and piano.

Both sonatas share the somewhat severe and autumnal quality of Brahms' late music, though the Second Sonata is the more immediately friendly of the two. The opening tempo marking, Allegro amabile, sets the tone for the entire work, for this is indeed music full of love. The viola enters immediately with a lyric theme that seems to flow endlessly, and this quality of continuous lyricism extends throughout the movement. The poised and noble second subject (Brahms marks it sotto voce) helps maintain the mood of calm acceptance that characterizes this sonata. The Allegro appassionato is in the standard scherzo-and-trio form. The viola's surging, twisting opening establishes the high energy level of this movement, and the trio section of characteristically Brahmsian nobility is all the more effective by contrast. The Andante con moto is a set of variations based on the viola's opening theme, which preserves some of the amabile spirit of the first movement. The theme undergoes four variations, all in 6/8 time, and then Brahms provides an unusual conclusion by shifting to 2/4 for the final variation and suddenly speeding the music up. In effect, the final movement performs the function of both slow movement and finale, and the last of Brahms' chamber works comes to its conclusion in a great rush of energy.