The death of two close friends in the early months of 1894 affected Brahms so deeply that he was unable to compose. His creativity returned after he heard Richard Mühlfeld’s exquisite clarinet playing at a festival of chamber music in Vienna.

Sharon Kam’s affinity with her instrument allows her to unlock tonal possibilities available to few other players, ideally suited for the infinite timbral shade and burnished warm tones of Brahms’s Sonata in F minor.