Schumann Soiréestücke op. 73: Schumann, born in 1810, had composed the pieces in Dresden early in 1849, which, in his own opinion, was his most productive year. The first piece was finished on 12 February 1849, and already on the next day Schumann completed the cycle with numbers two and three. Schumann’s wife Clara was delighted with her husband’s novel idea for the title “Soiréestücke für Clarinette und Pianoforte” in the autograph (...) Reger Sonata f-sharp minor op. 49 No. 2: At age 27 Max Reger composed his two sonatas for clarinet and piano op. 49 which were inspired – as we learn from this report by Reger’s piano and organ teacher Adalbert Lindner – by Brahms’s eminent contribution to this genre. Reger’s skillful treatment of the clarinet as an ensemble – rather than as a solo instrument was splendidly continued in the sonata op. 107, published by Bote & Bock in 1909, and in 1916 finally reached its brilliant summit in his very last composition, the quintet for clarinet and strings in A-major op. 146. (...) Berg Four Pieces op. 5 In “Vier Stücke für Klarinette und Klavier” op. 5 the 28-year-old Viennese composer Alban Berg addressed the aphorisitic style for the first time in his career, a style which was characteristic for both his longtime teacher and colleague Arnold Schönberg and his friend Anton Webern. (...)