Brahms wrote his String Quartet in B flat major, Op. 67 in 1876 and its largely unclouded and cheerful qualities culminate in a theme and variations finale of exceptional imagination and mastery of form. His last chamber music was inspired by a great exponent of the clarinet, Richard Mühlfeld, for whom he wrote four works including the Clarinet Quintet. This dazzling masterpiece is notable not only for its underlying elegiac mood but for its thematic interrelation and the wide expressive range of the solo instrument. The first two String Quartets can be heard on 8.573433 in performances described by ClassicsToday as “…passionate expressions of these scores.”