Christopher Purves bass - Chandos

CHAN 3121 BOOK.qxd 12/9/06 4:19 pm Page 16
How does all this affect our interpretation
of The Magic Flute? The opera, with all its
apparent simplicity, is one of its creator’s most
sophisticated works, and interpreters have
traditionally instilled a lofty, uplifting feeling
into the music, particularly since with
hindsight they see it as the inspirational source
of such great cornerstones of German art as
Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony or Wagner’s
Die Meistersinger. Even quite early on in the
history of Die Zauberflöte, we find Nissen,
who married Mozart’s widow Constanze,
objecting to the excessively slow tempo taken
by Kapellmeister of Pamina’s aria ‘Now I know
that love can vanish’ (‘Ach, ich fühl’s’). This
had first been mentioned in 1815 by a certain
Gottfried Weber, who found the aria ‘boring’
when taken slowly and suggested a
measurement of tempo equivalent in modern
metronomic terms to � = 132. Three months
later came a reply (unfortunately anonymous)
to the musical journal in which Weber wrote,
confirming that the writer had heard The
Magic Flute under Mozart’s direction, and that
the composer had indeed taken the aria
quickly and passionately. Further, the
anonymous correspondent mentioned that at
the time of writing (1815), the tempi marked
Andante and C| (Alla breve) were currently
being taken much too slowly, contrary to
Mozart’s practice.
This information gives us valuable insight
into Mozart’s tempi, and taken together with
the tempi for the symphonies suggested by
Hummel and Czerny, it provides a general
picture of the speeds current in Mozart’s time,
which differ considerably from those accepted
by late twentieth-century tradition.
The instruments we play today are more
sonorous and our voices are trained to be more
powerful than those of Mozart’s time, but this
added sonority has brought a certain
ponderousness to the general sound, with an
inevitable slowing down of the tempi. No
matter what instruments we use or what vocal
techniques we employ, an approximation to the
tempi of Mozart’s time seems necessary if we are
properly to express the spirit of his age. Thus, in
this recording, Pamina’s aria is invested with a
new, passionate expression when taken up to
the speed which we believe Mozart intended.
Other movements marked by Mozart as
Andante, Larghetto, Andantino or Adagio (Alla
Breve or 6/8) are similarly taken with a feeling
of two slow beats in a bar, rather than four or
six. The listener will notice this different kind
of pulse in many places throughout the opera,
but the following places should be mentioned:
the opening of the Overture, the Duet ‘A man
in search of truth and beauty’(‘Bei Männern’),
the Boys’ first Trio, Tamino’s ‘Flute’ Aria, the
Chorus ‘O Isis and Osiris’ and the following
Trio, the Boys’ Trio and Pamina’s attempted
suicide, and finally the Chorale Prelude
featuring the Two Armed Men.
Throughout the recording, appoggiaturas are
sung as was the practice in Mozart’s time, and
there are occasional improvised ornaments.
Those appoggiaturas actually written by Mozart
as small notes are sung at their notated value,
often providing a lilting syncopation to the
melody and sometimes giving variety to the
expression of the words, as in Tamino’s ‘Portrait’
aria (‘Such loveliness beyond compare’).
Synopsis
COMPACT DISC ONE
© Sir Charles Mackerras
Act I
1 – 2 A serpent is attacking prince Tamino,
who has run out of arrows. Tamino faints and
three Ladies, servants of the Queen of the
Night, kill the serpent. They cannot agree who
should stay to watch over the attractive young
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man, so they go off together to tell their
Queen about him. 3 Tamino comes round
and catches sight of Papageno, the Queen’s
bird-catcher, who claims to have killed the
serpent himself. The Ladies punish Papageno
for this lie by padlocking his mouth; they then
give Tamino a portrait of Pamina, the Queen’s
daughter, 4 and looking at her picture he
immediately falls in love with her.
5 – 6 The Queen appears and promises
Tamino that Pamina will be his if he will
rescue her from Sarastro, the Queen’s enemy,
who has kidnapped her. Papageno will
accompany him, and they will have a magic
flute and magic bells to help them, and three
Boys to guide them.
7 – 8 In Sarastro’s palace, Monostatos
tries to rape Pamina. Papageno, who has
become separated from Tamino, unexpectedly
appears and frightens him off. He comforts
Pamina and together they make their escape.
9 The three Boys lead Tamino to Sarastro’s
temple of Nature, Reason and Wisdom.
10 Tamino approaches each of three doors in
turn. Voices order him back from the first two;
11 from the third the Speaker enters and
convinces him he has been deceived in
thinking that Sarastro is evil. He leaves
Tamino to consider this reversal of his fate.