Ah! Perfido! - 1. Teil

“Ah! Perfido!” (op.65) is a scene and aria for soprano and orchestra. Beethoven composed it in 1796, when he was in Prague on his first concert tour of Europe. “Ah! Perfido!” was premiered in Leipzig in 1796, and it was not until 1808 that Beethoven performed it in Vienna for the first time, at the Theater an der Wien.
The text is by the famous imperial court poet Pietro Metastasio, and describes an episode from classical mythology. Deidamia has been abandoned by Achilles and is oscillating between furious denial and the deep, hopeless anguish occasioned by his departure. Beethoven transmits this abundance of emotion through a combination of sudden changes in tempo, stark dynamic contrasts and varied instrumentation, thus creating a scene full of tension in which rage, pain and longing chase after each other.

This recording is by the Norwegian soprano Kirsten Flagstad (1895–1982) who, despite the controversy surrounding her political views in the 1940s, became an internationally renowned star soprano. She is accompanied here by the Philadelphia Orchestra, conducted by Eugene Ormandy (1899–1985). Flagstad sings Beethoven’s composition with dramatic fervour, making skilful use of her sonorous soprano voice.
(Eva Maria Peintner)