These works were part of Saint-Saëns's efforts to expand the repertoire for instruments for which hardly any solo parts were written, as he confided to his friend Jean Chantavoine in a letter dated to 15 April 1921: "At the moment I am concentrating my last reserves on giving rarely considered instruments the chance to be heard.

"[1][2] Saint-Saëns dedicated the work to Auguste Périer, a professor at the Conservatoire de Paris.

For the musical scholar Jean Gallois, the Clarinet Sonata is the most important of the three wind sonatas: he calls it "a masterpiece full of impishness, elegance and discreet lyricism" amounting to "a summary of the rest".

The work contrasts a "doleful threnody" in the slow movement with the finale, which "pirouettes in 4/4 time", in a style reminiscent of the 18th century.

[3] Today the sonata is part of the standard repertoire of the clarinet.