At The Gates - All Life Ends (live)

The dramaturgy of Sonata No. 31 in A flat major moves from the deliberately simple and innocent first movement through the impudent Scherzo to the finale, consisting of inconsolable crying and a highly elevated fugue. Beethoven designated the most expressive part of the sonata as Arioso dolente (literally - “Sorrowful Arioso”), citing the parallel German name Klagender Gesang (“Complaint song”). Arioso’s music passes twice, and upon returning it is interrupted by pauses, as if the singing could not hold back sobbing approaching the throat (author’s remark: “exhausted”, or “losing strength”). Here, of course, the death and burial of an expensive creature is lamented: the last bars ending the Arioso can be interpreted as a position in the grave. But death is followed by transfiguration and resurrection:the second fugue, as it were, helps the soul to free itself from gravity and with glee rush to the radiant heights.