PAPAGENO: Right, then, that's still how it is!
Since there is nothing holding me back,
good night, thou false world!
-- most of our Magic Flute translations by Robert A. Jordan
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (b), Papageno; Berlin Philharmonic, Karl Böhm, cond. DG, recorded June 1964
Or in English: "Fare thee well, thou world of pain!"
[in English] John Brownlee (b), Papageno; Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Bruno Walter, cond. Live performance, Dec. 26, 1942
by Ken
We were just looking at Mozart's and Beethoven's exceptional use of minor keys for opening movements of symphonies and concertos, and one point I could have made more explicit is how frequently -- among these admittedly infrequent cases -- the "thematic" material that inspires such a plan is more "motivic" than really melodic -- think of Mozart's D minor Piano Concerto (No. 20) or of Beethoven's Fifth and Ninth Symphonies.
But of course the minor mode doesn't preclude great tunes, and I think that's what planted the thought of this great moment from The Magic Flute in my head. It's the moment when Papageno the lowly bird-catcher is driven by his loneliness to the ultimate despair, and I think the Fischer-Dieskau performance in particular makes it clear that Mozart plays this moment "for real." (Not to worry, we're going to hear the complete scene, er, eventually.)
As I suggested in Friday night's "double preview," "Enter the bird-catcher; exit Sir Colin Davis," we're focusing this week on Papageno, though as we often do, we're going to start with the Overture.
OUR THREE PRINCIPAL PAPAGENOS
AND THEIR DISTINGUISHED CONDUCTORS
Sunday Classics: The symphonic Mozart and Beethoven open in minor mode
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They look so simple, these eight notes, but they form one of the most striking and readily identifiable motifs in all of music -- the opening of one of Beethoven's two minor-key symphonic first movements.
by Ken
In Friday night's preview we listened to all of the first movements among Mozart's 40 or so symphonies which are in minor keys. That's right, both of them, which happen to be in the same key, G minor.
Partly this was out of abiding affection for the masterpiece among them, the great Symphony No. 40, and partly it was as a springboard to listening to the two first movements among Beethoven's nine symphonies which are in minor keys, Nos. 5 (C minor) and 9 (D minor). It seems clear to me that these movements have something in common, something that sets them apart from all their major-key brethren -- and something that even sort of applies to the littler Mozart G minor Symphony, No. 25.
Let's listen again to the Mozart G minor opening movements.
MOZART: Symphony No. 25 in G minor, K. 183: i. Allegro con brio
Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Bruno Walter, cond. Columbia, recorded Dec. 10, 1954 (mono)
Concertgebouw Orchestra (Amsterdam), Josef Krips, cond. Philips, recorded June 1973
MOZART: Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550: i. Molto allegro
Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Bruno Walter, cond. Columbia-CBS-Sony, recorded 1959
Concertgebouw Orchestra (Amsterdam), Josef Krips, cond. Philips, recorded June 1972
I DON'T WANT TO MAKE THIS SOUND MORE
MYSTERIOUS THAN IT ACTUALLY IS
"Sunday, Bloody Sunday" and the depths of Mozart's humanity
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The trailer for John Schlesinger's Sunday, Bloody Sunday (1971)
by Ken
I tried to figure out how to work in a reference to Sunday, Bloody Sunday in writing earlier today about Mozart's Così, but couldn't figure out how to do it. I hoped maybe I'd find a clip online that shows the way director John Schlesinger used the great trio from Così to characterize his central character, a doctor (played by the great Peter Finch) who only now, in late mid-life, finds himself grappling with his sexual ambivalence. I came up empty, but it's still a great movie. I haven't seen it in ages, and probably ought to see it again.
The film was still very much on my mind when I reviewed Georg Solti's lovely first recording of Così fan tutte. Here's the trio from that lovely recording:
MOZART: Così fan tutte, K. 588: Act I, Trio, "Soave sia il vento"
Gentle be the breeze, Calm be the waves, And every element Smile in favour On their wish.
Pilar Lorengar (s), Fiordiligi; Teresa Berganza (ms), Dorabella; Gabriel Bacquier (b), Don Alfonso; London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Georg Solti, cond. Decca, recorded 1973-74
And as long as we're listening to this glorious trio, here it is again, from Karl Böhm's 1962 Così recording.
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (s), Fiordiligi; Christa Ludwig (ms), Dorabella; Walter Berry (bs-b), Don Alfonso; Philharmonia Orchestra, Karl Böhm, cond. EMI, recorded September 1962
In some odd way that I can't explain, there's a dividing line in Mozart's creative life, not between the three operatic masterpieces written with librettist Lorenzo da Ponte and the later Magic Flute, but between the second and third of the da Ponte operas, Don Giovanni and Così. It's fascinating how often conductors who are in the groove with The Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni aren't with Così and Magic Flute, and vice versa. Somehow both Solti and Böhm seemed always to have a much stronger affinity for the later pair, Così and Magic Flute, than with Figaro and Don Giovanni.
Here is the great Act I farewell quintet -- often, and understandably, associated with the Così trio -- from Solti's later Magic Flute recording, and from Otto Klemperer's beautiful 1964 one. I've edited the quintet brutally, after the Three Ladies of the Queen of the Night have given Tamino and Papageno their marching orders for rescuing the Queen's daughter, Pamina, from the clutches of the supposedly evil Sarastro, and given Tamino a magic flute and Papageno a set of magic bells for protection, but we'll make that up some other time. (Recordings note: Böhm's glorious 1964 DG Magic Flute is one of my most beloved opera recordings, and I once had it on CD, but I can't find the CD edition. I could have dubbed it from LP, but I think Solti and Klemperer will represent this amazing music just fine, thank you.)
MOZART: The Magic Flute, K. 620: Act I, Quintet, "Lebet wohl! Wir wollen gehn!" . . . "Drei Knäbchen, jung, schön, hold und weise" . . . "So lebet wohl!"
THE THREE LADIES: Farewell, we are going. Farewell, until we see you again! [All are about to go.] TAMINO: Yet, fair ladies, tell us . . . PAPAGENO: How the castle may be found. TAMINO and PAPAGENO: How the castle may be found. THE THREE LADIES: Three boys, young, beautiful, gracious, and wise, will accompany you on your journey. They will be your guides, follow nothing but their advice. TAMINO and PAPAGENO: Three boys, young, beautiful, gracious, and wise, will accompany us on our journey. THE THREE LADIES: They will be your guides, follow nothing but their advice. ALL: So farewell, we are going; farewell, farewell, until we see you again!
Adrianne Pieczonka (s), Annette Kuettenbaum (ms), and Jard van Nes (c), Three Ladies; Uwe Heilmann (t), Tamino; Michael Kraus (b), Papageno; Vienna Philharmonic, Sir Georg Solti, cond. Decca, recorded May and Dec. 1990 Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (s), Christa Ludwig (ms), and Marga Höffgen (c), Three Ladies; Nicolai Gedda (t), Tamino; Walter Berry (bs-b), Papageno; Philharmonia Orchestra, Otto Klemperer, cond. EMI, recorded March-Apr. 1964
