The recitative and aria Ah! perfido 'Per pietà non dirmi addio' ('Ah! Perfidious Traitor "Have pity, do not bid me farewell"') is a setting of a passage in Metastasio's libretto Achille in Sciro and was written by Beethoven in 1796. The composer wrote on the cover of a copy that he had revised 'Une grande scène mise en musique par L.v.Beethoven à Prague, 1796'. The first page has the explanatory note 'Recitativo ed Aria composta e dedicata alla Signora Contessa di Clari da L.v.Beethoven', but it seems probable that the work was completed in Prague in 1796 and intended for and sung there by Madame Duschek, as there is, at least, mention of an Italian scena written for her by Beethoven. The Countess Josephine Clary, to whom the work was seemingly dedicated was an amateur singer in Vienna, who in 1797 married Count Christian Clam-Gallas. The work was published in 1805, and badly performed at the famously extended and under-rehearsed concert of 22 December 1808 given in the unheated Theater an der Wien. The taxing programme included the Fifth and Sixth Symphonies, the Fourth Piano Concerto, and the Choral Fantasia, the last of which came adrift and had to be started again. Johann Friedrich Reichardt, who attended the concert at the invitation of Beethoven's patron Prince Lobkowitz, left an account of the occasion, which opened with the Pastoral Symphony, followed by the aria, 'Then followed a long Italian scena, sung by Mlle. Kilizky, the beautiful Bohemian with the beautiful voice. That today this pretty child rather shivered than sang could not be taken amiss, in view of the bitter cold; in our box near by, we too were shivering, wrapped in our furs and great coats.' The singer, Josephine Killitschgy, sister-in-law of the violinist Schuppanzigh, had finally been recruited to take the place of the soprano Anna Milder, with whom Beethoven had quarrelled.

Writer: Keith Anderson