With his clarinet quintet, begun in 1915, Reger was remembering his role models Mozart and Brahms, whose works in this genre he particularly admired. This melancholic quintet that is worked through in a strictly motivic way was to be Reger’s last opus.

Shortly after he had sent it to his publisher, he died of heart attack in May 1916. The quintet was to become his swan song, first performed at a memorial for the composer on 6 November 1916. Almost one hundred years later, we are now publishin...