Northern Lights: Carrie Plays Sibelius
What to Listen For
The Magic Flute Overture:
Listen for the heavy, imposing Masonic chords that open Mozart’s Magic Flute Overture, the sudden burst of a breathless, rapid fugue played by the strings, and the prominent use of three trombones, a detail highly unusual for Mozart’s purely instrumental works.
The Overture begins with the orchestra playing three slow, striking, and deliberate chords, heavily featuring the trombones. The number three is deeply significant in Freemasonry. These three opening chords represent the initiation rituals into the Masonic temple, and they symbolize wisdom, reason, and nature. Listen for when you will hear them again.
Immediately after the opening chords, the music becomes quieter, wandering, and slightly uneasy. Listen to how the music now pauses and shifts. This quiet section sets the tone for mystery and suspense, which very subtly warns the listener that the opera will involve a journey through unknown and magical realms.
Then the strings play a fast, spirited section, a fugue. (A fugue is a highly structured musical composition where independent melodies interweave based on a single main theme.) Listen to how Mozart plays with the accents in the main theme here. He stresses the off-beats instead of putting the usual emphasis on the downbeat, creating a feeling of momentum, lightness, and some playful comedy in the second section of the overture.
Violin Concerto in D:
Allegro Moderato
The opening of the first movement is both brooding and dramatic. You might envision a cold, empty, perhaps snow-covered landscape. First, listen for the muted section violins and the violin soloist’s entrance with a quiet, sorrowful melody. Then listen for two instruments, bassoon and cello, to share a yearning line before another bold, march-like theme is introduced. Also, pay attention to what happens in the middle of the movement: instead of development section, Sibelius inserts a gigantic, fiery cadenza. Listen for rapid string crossings, forceful, bold double-stops, and extreme leaps covering the violin’s complete range. This solo cadenza leads directly into the recapitulation. Listen to how the initial themes have evolved from when they were first introduced. The movement ends with a coda, embellished with virtuosic solo parts.
Adagio di molto
In the second movement, a romance, the solo violin predominates. This very emotionally effective movement has an enchanting, melancholic melody. It begins with a light phrase in the woodwinds that can be likened to a sigh. Listen for the dark, rich tones of the violin’s lower register and how the brass and lower winds generate a heavy, brooding support as a foundation. The movement becomes more intense and dramatic before a gentle recapitulation of the initial theme, now decorated with delicate embellishments.
Allegro, ma non tanto
Sibelius once described the finale a danse macabre. The renowned musical analyst, Sir Donald Francis Tovey, jokingly called this strongly rhythmic movement “a polonaise for polar bears.” Listen to how Sibelius challenges the violinist to perform a virtuosic display, especially in thematic embellishments. The movement concludes with brilliant, bold violin arcs against the orchestra’s decisive chordal punctuation.
Symphony No. 2 in D major:
Adagio molto – Allegro con brio
Listen for the unusually long, dramatic, and lyrical introduction. Notice the sudden jolts of fortissimo chords followed by abrupt, playful silences before the burst of a fast, optimistic main theme. The following main section, Allegro con brio, is constructed on a much lengthier scale than was then common during Beethoven’s time.
Larghetto
This slow movement suggests pure, smiling grace but is highly unpredictable. Listen closely for the unpredictable “fidgetiness.” Beethoven constantly interrupts beautiful, song-like melodies with offbeat accents and short, hurried bursts of notes.
Scherzo
In a crucial historical first, Beethoven replaced the elegant, stately minuet (the standard dance of the era) with a scherzo for the third movement. Scherzo means “joke” in Italian, so listen for the mischievous musical games, rapid-fire exchanges between instruments, and sudden harmonic twists. The invention and popularization of the witty symphonic scherzo are primarily credited to Beethoven.
Allegro molto
The finale is a high-spirited rondo, both boisterous and almost comedic. Listen for relentless, bouncing energy and the abrupt, comical stops-and-starts that contrast with the more formal, sweeping transitions. In true Beethoven fashion, the movement concludes with a dramatic coda filled with tricky fake endings and triumphant closing chords.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Overture to Die Zauberflöte, (The Magic Flute)
Born: January 27, 1756, in Salzburg
Died: December 5, 1791, in Vienna
Date of Composition: July 1791
Premiere: September 30, 1791
Orchestration: two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, and strings
Mozart wrote the opera, The Magic Flute, in July 1791; it was well received at its premiere on September 30, two months before he died. The last years of his short life were difficult. His career as a pianist and composer had reached its climax five years earlier; then, fickle public taste turned elsewhere for novelty and amusement. He had few commissions and was reduced to writing sets of ballroom dances and other relatively unimportant occasional pieces. The care of his beloved, ailing wife became a constant burden, although, ironically, she was to outlive him by fifty years.
It is unusual for an opera to have as many layers of meaning as The Magic Flute has. Containing an allegory, and always a problem for audiences because of its metaphorical meaning, The Magic Flute is a fantasy as well as a manifesto of philosophical and social beliefs. As the critic Malcolm Cole has said, “Set in Egypt, colored by Enlightenment ideals and Masonic precepts, and seasoned with comic episodes, magic, and stage machinery, the plot hinges upon a theme of trial and purification, a quest for wisdom guided by friendship and supported by love.”
The Overture to The Magic Flute is a work of great weight and solemnity. It begins with a slow introduction, in which three great chords call the audience to attention. The solemnity of this introductory passage pervades the whole overture. The first three bars of the overture represent the three knocks on the door by which members were admitted into the Masonic initiation ceremony. Mozart further reinforced the solemnity of this overture by showcasing both trombones and timpani. In Mozart’s time, trombones were seldom used in symphonic music; they were reserved for church or opera choruses representing the underworld. Trombones were often used to symbolize God or supernatural phenomena when they began to be used for other kinds of music during the 18th century. Listen for how the heavy presence of the trombones and timpani are used to add weight to this overture in a grand, majestic way.
Jean Sibelius: Violin Concerto in D minor
Born: December 8, 1865, in Tavastehus, Finland
Died: September 20, 1957, in Jarvenpää, Finland
Date of composition: 1903
Premiere: Helsinki in 1904; In its revised form, it was first performed in Berlin in 1905, with Karl Halir as soloist and Richard Strauss, conductor of the orchestra
Instrumentation: two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, and strings
Jean Sibelius is one of the relatively few Scandinavian composers who gained international fame. He studied in Berlin and Vienna and made concert tours to the principal cities of Europe as well as to England, where his works became popular. He also taught at the New England Conservatory of Music; and Yale University awarded him an honorary degree.
While Sibelius was composing the Violin Concerto, his wife, Aïno, wrote to a friend that he often stayed up late to write down all the musical ideas he had during the day. It was a time of great production for him, but concurrently, a period when he worried about his health. In 1902, he suffered a painful, stubborn ear infection, which triggered thoughts of Beethoven and Smetana’s deafness and spawned fear for his own hearing. Soon he developed throat trouble; his worry about deafness intensified. His two ailments continued for several years, until his doctors found a benign tumor on which they performed several operations. Afterwards, his health finally returned to normal.
Sibelius completed the Violin Concerto in 1903; it premiered in Helsinki in 1904. Sibelius remained dissatisfied with the work and revised it completely in 1905, to better balance the virtuosic passagework with the orchestral writing, smoothly blending the symphonic and violin lines. He was a trained violinist, and had contemplated a performing career. Many commentators believe that the difficulty of the violin part reflects Sibelius’s own experience as a performer.
The Violin Concerto presents an effective amalgam of romantic elements and the composer's novel ideas of form and development. Throughout, the soloist and orchestra are partners, jointly evoking musical feelings. Instead of traditional showy virtuosity, he integrated the solo violin into the symphonic fabric, constantly pushing the limits of the instrument. Of the work’s spirit, Eric Tawaststjerna, the composer’s biographer, wrote, “The Concerto is distinctly Nordic in its overwhelming sense of nostalgia.”
Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 2 in D major
Born: December 16, 1770, in Bonn, Germany
Died: March 26, 1827, in Vienna
Date of composition: summer-early fall 1802
Premiere: April 5, 1803, at Theater an der Wien in Vienna, with the composer himself conducting
Orchestration: pairs of flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns, trumpets, timpani, and strings
The Symphony No. 2 is one of Beethoven’s most joyous, serene compositions, yet he composed it during one of the saddest times of his life. He was losing his hearing. While he was composing Symphony No. 2, he followed his doctor’s orders and went to live in the quiet village of Heiligenstad. Shortly before his return to Vienna, he wrote a will in letter form for his brothers, a touching statement in which he admitted his horror and pain from his terrible realization that he was becoming deaf: “How could I possibly admit an infirmity in the one sense which ought to be more perfect in me than in other people, a sense that I once possessed in the highest perfection.” In the fall, even more overcome with hopelessness, yet relying on reserves of internal fortitude, Beethoven completed the second symphony.
At its premiere, critics recognized that Symphony No. 2 showed a proclivity toward novelty and surprise; one critic announced that it confirmed his feeling that “Beethoven, in time, can effect a revolution in music, as Mozart did.” Looking back, it is difficult to associate Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2 with musical revolution more than with the terrible torment he endured in Heiligenstadt, but glimpses of Beethoven’s future groundbreaking symphonic composition and signature strong dynamic contrasts shine through the work.
© Susan Halpern, 2026