42
PARTISAN REVIEW
new sense of control over basic processes, a distillation of technique
to the purest essentials of the art. Mozart can hardly resolve a dom–
inant-seventh chord now without shedding on it a light that no other
composer has ever comprehended:
TAMINO:
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These sublime accents were foreshadowed by the climactic scene of
reconciliation at the end of
Figaro.
They recur now
in
works like
the Clarinet Quintet, the Clarinet Concerto, the last Piano Concerto
(B-flat, K.595), the Rondo for Musical Glasses, the Fantasy for
Mechanical Organ, and sometimes in
La Clemenza di Tito
and the
Requiem Mass.
Little needs to be added to Dent's analysis and appreciation of
the impeccable dramatic structure of
The Magic Flute.
Everything
progresses calmly but firmly and clearly, the pacing is immaculate,
and at every point the music sums up the dramatic situation and
illuminates it. From the very opening scene, which
is
in its quiet way
as perfect as the first scene in
Don Giovanni,
we see that the vir-
