One of the most poignant melodies ever

The clarinet sonatas come at the very end of Brahms' life and a profound simplicity begins to reveal itself which seems to imitate the touching tranquility of Schubert's late style as well. (The sparse piano writing and song-like melodic writing remind me of the slow movements in Schubert's final piano sonatas) Yet Brahms' harmonic ingenuity is almost cleverly hidden by such an unassuming piano texture; Held harmonies above changing bass notes create multiple suspensions and dissonances that only resolve in the following bar. Perhaps zooming into the first bar itself is the most telling, with a Ab major harmony that expands into F minor and then Bb minor all in the span of three quavers. All that with a single Eb in the melody which changes from harmony note to 7th to suspension and finally resolves to Db in the next bar. This constant figuration creates a dense and rather complicated web of harmonies encoded in a condensed piano accompaniment. We see this technique exploited in just an opus before, in his Intermezzo op.119 no.1, to quite a similar effect.
My favourite moment would probably be the appoggiatura of Ab over the C minor chord, which creates such a poignant dissonance with the G in the harmony, perhaps also emphasised by the V-vi interrupted cadence.

Brahms' Clarinet Sonata Op.120 No.1, Second movement.
Recording (Leister):    • Brahms Sonata No. 1 in F minor for cl...