Brahms had already announced his „retirementÂ" from composition when in the spring of 1894 he played chamber music with the cellist Robert Hausmann and the clarinettist Richard Mühlfeld. This encounter apparently renewed his enthusiasm for MühlfeldÂ's much admired playing and inspired him to write two clarinet sonatas in the summer of the same year. Brahms and Mühlfeld premiered the works and played them in several performances until the sonatas op. 120 were first published in June of 1895. They remain pivotal works in the clarinetÂ's recital repertoire establishing the clarinet sonata as a distinct and viable chamber music genre.