Chopin/Glazunov, Franchomme: Etude No.7 (Gabetta/Chamayou, Weilerstein/Barnatan)

Sometimes things are just beautiful, you know? You can say a lot about them, but the most salient musical fact is that the first note makes you stop breathing, and when the work ends you’re not sure if you ever let that breath go. So it is with these two arrangements of Chopin’s 25.7 for Cello and Piano. Most days of the week I like Glazunov’s a little more, but they both work perfectly on their own terms, despite how different they are. Glazunov changes things up a fair bit – since the cello now takes over the LH the piano gets an entirely new LH, which neatly anticipates the dotted motif you hear in the cello at 1:07 (the first occurrence of the motif is at 0:35). The piano also gets to echo a beautiful motif in the cello (1:21), although I think the decision by Gabetta/Chamayou to leave this out at 2:59 is entirely justified – it makes the harmonic change and the subsequent pause so much more effective. Glazunov also significantly simplifies the rapid LH runs originally for the piano when th