Scena and Rondo for Soprano in E♭ major, “Ch’io mi scordi di te? … Non temer, amato bene” (K. 505)
di Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Mozart’s Scena and Rondo “Ch’io mi scordi di te? … Non temer, amato bene” (K. 505) is a concert aria for soprano with piano obbligato and orchestra, composed in Vienna in late December 1786. Written for the celebrated Nancy Storace (the first Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro), it turns a farewell scenario into an unusually intimate “double concerto” for voice and keyboard.
Background and Context
In Mozart’s Vienna, the concert aria was more than a showpiece: it could be a tailor-made portrait of a singer, a social occasion, and a vehicle for experimenting with genre. Ch’io mi scordi di te? … Non temer, amato bene (K. 505) belongs to this world. Mozart entered the work in his own thematic catalogue on 27 December 1786 in Vienna, and the scoring is already striking—soprano with concertante keyboard, not merely continuo, alongside a bright wind-and-string palette.[1]
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
The aria is closely associated with Nancy Storace (1765–1817), the English soprano who created Susanna in May 1786 and became one of the central personalities of Joseph II’s Italian troupe. Mozart is widely reported to have written K. 505 for her farewell concert in Vienna on 23 February 1787 at the Theater am Kärntnertor—an event that turned parting into a theatrical premise and, likely, placed Mozart himself at the keyboard.[2][3]
Text and Composition
The text begins as an anxious question—“Must I forget you?”—and blossoms into reassurance: “Do not fear, beloved.” It had already attracted Mozart’s attention earlier in 1786, when he composed the related insertion scena Non più. Tutto ascoltai… Non temer, amato bene (K. 490) for a private revival of Idomeneo at Prince Auersperg’s palace (documented for 13 March 1786). That earlier piece uses obbligato violin; K. 505 transforms the same emotional situation into a soprano-and-keyboard partnership.[4][5]
K. 505’s instrumentation underlines its hybrid identity between opera and concerto. In the Köchel-Verzeichnis entry the work is described as a scena for soprano, “clavier” and orchestra, and it specifies (among others) two clarinets, horns, and strings, with the keyboard marked piano forte concertato.[1]
Musical Character
The work falls into two complementary spans: an intense accompanied recitative (Ch’io mi scordi di te?) followed by a rondo (Non temer, amato bene) in E♭ major.[2] What makes K. 505 distinctive—even among Mozart’s concert arias—is the way the keyboard part behaves like a second protagonist. Rather than supplying harmonic support, it comments, anticipates, and consoles, creating a chamber-like dialogue within an orchestral frame. The result can feel like opera’s psychological close-up fused with the public virtuosity of a piano concerto.
This voice–keyboard partnership is also a clue to why the piece deserves more attention than its “occasional” origin might suggest. In late 1786 Mozart was simultaneously a dramatist and a keyboard poet; K. 505 compresses those gifts into a single scene where sentiment is conveyed as much by instrumental rhetoric as by text. The clarinets (an increasingly favorite color in Mozart’s Vienna) soften the orchestral sheen, while the rondo’s recurring refrain allows the soprano to trace a persuasive emotional arc—from fear, to tenderness, to a luminous steadiness that feels earned rather than merely decorative.[1]
In sum, Ch’io mi scordi di te? (K. 505) stands as a small masterpiece of Mozart’s mature stage style: an opera scene without an opera, and a concerto slow movement with words—crafted for a specific singer and moment, yet capable of speaking far beyond its first farewell.
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
[1] Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum, Köchel-Verzeichnis entry for KV 505 (date in Mozart’s catalogue; scoring details incl. concertante keyboard and clarinets).
[2] Wikipedia: “Ch’io mi scordi di te?” (overview; Vienna composition in Dec 1786; association with Storace farewell concert; two-part recitative + rondo outline).
[3] Boston Baroque program note on K. 505 (context for Storace; Mozart likely performing the piano part; date and occasion framing).
[4] Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum, Köchel-Verzeichnis entry for KV 490 (Auersperg/Idomeneo context; performance date; link between K. 490 and K. 505).
[5] MozartDocuments.org: March 1786 (documentation and discussion of Auersperg’s private Idomeneo performance and Mozart’s new insertions incl. K. 489–490).