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Die Zauberflöte overture K. 620
Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute was his first full-scale German opera since Die Entführung aus dem Serail of ten years before. Though opera overtures in the eighteenth century usually were not linked thematically with the operas themselves, Mozart had begun to refer in his overtures to the mood and even to the themes of the opera to follow. This overture was composed after the rest of the work was complete. The majestic opening of three noble chords (in the key of E-flat major with its thee flats, the opera’s Masonic home key) served to alert his listeners immediately to expect something more than the usual Schikaneder-type farce. Indeed, the opera’s overture reveals the entire story in microcosm. The three imposing chords are followed by a short, somewhat ruminative adagio, which gives way to a magnificently worked-out fugue, the first in any Mozart overture. (The subject is borrowed from the sonata Clementi played in the famous musical competition that he lost to Mozart in the emperor’s presence in 1781. Mozart also made reference to the theme in his “Prague” Symphony.) After the themes (all related to the basic fugue subject) have been cited, the wind instruments solemnly pronounce the Masonic motto three times. The fugue resumes, now modulating far afield, just as Tamino and Pamina must make journeys in their trials of purification. Their triumph and glorification are evident in the coda, which returns to E-flat major and ends with the three symbolic chords.
Programme note by Nick Jones. © Brilliant Classics
Mozart: Die Zauberflöte (overture) K. 620
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