»Von Freude und Traurigkeit«

The young Reynaldo Hahn received his musical training at the Paris Conservatoire from Jules Massenet amongst others. The flowing, velvety character of his Piano Quartet No. 3 in G major is typical of Hahn's lyrical composing style and reveals a close association with the works of his teacher Massenet.

In January 1891, Johannes Brahms met the solo clarinettist of the Meiningen Court Orchestra, Richard Mühlfeld, and became close friends with him in a very short time. The mutual respect between these two musicians was also the reason for the composer's marked interest in the clarinet in the last few creative years of his life. His Quintet for Clarinet and String Quartet in B minor, op. 115,is defined far less by the separate, individual voices than by the tonal homogeneity within which the clarinet expresses a particular colour quality.