Matthew Hunt returns to Bantry for a series of concerts beginning with this much-loved Quintet by Brahms renowned for its air of renewal inspired by his meeting with the clarinettist Richard Mühlfeld at a music festival. Brahms was stunned by his performances of the Weber Clarinet Concerto and Mozart Clarinet Quintet. Here was a musician who could make his instrument sing like a violist or mezzo-soprano – other incarnations of the dark, soulful voice that had always seduced him. He sat with him for hours listening to him play and was spellbound by the sensuality of the clarinet in Mühlfeld's hands. The fruits of that summer's composing were first the Clarinet Trio and then, what he called
a far greater folly, this B minor quintet. Later in the Festival you can hear both that Clarinet Trio in the version for viola (Event 73) and the Mozart Quintet (Event 20).
