In addition to full-scale opera, Mozart wrote numerous concert arias for independent performance: glimpses, as it were, of an unwritten drama, whose antecedents and consequences we are left to imagine for ourselves. One such is the recitative and aria Misero! o sogno, K431 written for the tenor Johann Valentin Adamberger (1740-1804), a Mason and friend of Mozart, who wrote several other works for him. Adamberger sang this aria in concerts by the Vienna Tonkünstler-Societät in December 1783. The authorship of the text is unknown: it feels as if it might be part of an existing libretto, but if so this has never been identified. Strongly dramatic—even prophetically looking forward to Beethoven’s Fidelio—it finds the tenor character imprisoned in a dark and scary cave. He shouts to his captors to release him, to open the hellish door, but no one answers his plea: all he hears is the echo of his own voice, and implores the winds to carry his sighs to the ears of his beloved, whom he will never see again. In the last part of the aria, his mind becomes increasingly agitated at the thought of never getting out; he can find no peace. The musical result is a fascinating blend of the Baroque and proto-Romantic.

from notes by Malcolm MacDonald © 2011