July 1, 2010

Closure of the 2009/10 season brought Mihael’s first appearance with the Samobor Strings, the young unconducted chamber orchestra entering its third subscription year. The concert was held at Samobor’s St. Anastasia Parish Church and featured the works of Mozart, Baermann and Smetana, while for the first time Ensemble being introduced in forms of various smaller chamber groups.

Thus, the Baermann’s virtuoso Quintet for clarinet and strings was performed by the string quartet with Mihael Paar as a guest soloist on this particular occasion. The Quintet is one of those works written for a clarinettist by a clarinettist; idiomatic in the texture, but rounded in the content and musical richness. Ironically, the greatest recognition Baermann would receive for his last long forgotten Quintet emerged in the form of a false attribution; approaching its first modern performance, the Quintet’s central movement went credited as an early work of the great Richard Wagner and remained as such on the repertoire for the entire half of the century. Fortunately, there can be no doubt today as wether this divining Adagio derives from the Baermann’s pen and belongs to his Quintet op. 23.

Its praised Samobor premiere gave a symbolic prelude to the newly established collaboration of the Samobor Strings and their guest soloist.