Franck violin/cello sonata?

Just finished listening to the replay of Anastasia Kobekina and Jean-Selim Abdelmoula’s Wigmore Hall recital. Am reminded of how good the quality of recording is nowadays. Only downside of watching through a screen is I can’t really clap by myself in a room. It’s just not the same, you know?

Anyways, they performed Franck’s infamous violin sonata, but arranged for cello by Jules Delsart, and I thought: it actually sounds better than the original!

What’s pretty incredible is that the piano part is apparently kept completely the same! Which means the timbre makes a huge difference. Maybe it was Anastasia’s amazing sound, but I definitely felt that the heartrendingly tragic bits (the motif made of three minims which comes back again and again) were made more exquisite by the fact that the cello has to play at a high register, and cellos playing at high registers are just the most beautiful sounds ever.

That being said, I think the final movement sounds better with the violin. Its high registers, marking the wedding bells, create a greater sense of ecstasy and joy than the cello. It’s a little weird when the piano plays higher notes than the melodic instrument. My personal opinion.

Perhaps the best combo is therefore cello for the first three movements (definitely 2 and 3; we can accede the first movement to the violin if the violinist complains) and violin for the finale.

Despite my opinion, the amazing thing is that listening to the transcribed cello version didn’t feel like a transcription, and that is the most important thing: that the transcription can stand independent of the original.