Editing Johannes Brahms (section)

====Late chamber music and songs====
After the successful Vienna premiere of his [[String Quintet No. 2 (Brahms)|Second String Quintet]], Op. 111 in 1890, the 57-year-old Brahms came to think that he might retire from composition, telling a friend that he "had achieved enough; here I had before me a carefree old age and could enjoy it in peace."{{sfn|Swafford|1999|pp=568–569}} He also began to find solace in escorting the mezzo-soprano [[Alice Barbi]] and may have proposed to her (she was only 28).{{sfn|Swafford|1999|p=569}} His admiration for [[Richard Mühlfeld]], clarinettist with the Meiningen orchestra, revived his interest in composing and led him to write the [[Clarinet Trio (Brahms)|Clarinet Trio]], Op.&nbsp;114 (1891); [[Clarinet Quintet (Brahms)|Clarinet Quintet]], Op.&nbsp;115 (1891); and the two [[Clarinet Sonatas (Brahms)|Clarinet Sonatas]], Op.&nbsp;120 (1894).

Brahms also wrote at this time his final cycles of piano pieces, Opp.&nbsp;[[Fantasies, Op. 116 (Brahms)|116]]–[[Four Pieces for Piano, Op. 119 (Brahms)|119]] and the ''[[Vier ernste Gesänge]]'' (Four Serious Songs), Op.&nbsp;121 (1896), which were prompted by the death of Clara Schumann and dedicated to the artist [[Max Klinger]], who was his great admirer.<ref>{{cite web|title=Max Klinger / Johannes Brahms: Engraving, Music and Fantasy|url=https://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/events/exhibitions/in-the-museums/exhibitions-in-the-musee-dorsay-more/article/max-klinger-johannes-brahms-engraving-music-and-fantasy-4485.html|website=[[Musée d'Orsay]]|access-date=2 March 2021|archive-date=17 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210417023216/https://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/events/exhibitions/in-the-museums/exhibitions-in-the-musee-dorsay-more/article/max-klinger-johannes-brahms-engraving-music-and-fantasy-4485.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> The last of the [[Eleven Chorale Preludes]] for organ, Op.&nbsp;122 (1896) is a setting of "O Welt ich muss dich lassen" ("O world I must leave thee") and the last notes that Brahms wrote.{{sfn|Bond|1971|p=898}} Many of these works were written in his house in [[Bad Ischl]], where Brahms had first visited in 1882 and where he spent every summer from 1889 onwards.{{sfn|Hofmann|Hofmann|2010|p=42}}