The shorter hairpin in FE1 (→FE2→EE) is probably erroneous – it reaches the end of the text's line, which makes an accidental oversight of the further part of the sign more credible (cf. the mistake of GE1 in bars 165-166). However, in the proofreading of FE3 (→FE4), instead of, as one could expect, adding the overlooked continuation of the sign, the already printed part was removed. Perhaps we are dealing with an unfinished correction – the engraver removed the existing sign in bars 153-154 to replace it with a new, narrower one, which would graphically suit the intended continuation in bars 155-156, which, however, was not performed. In any case, it seems to be highly unlikely that Chopin would have wanted to resign from indicating crescendo, so natural in this place, if we take into consideration the ascending progression and pedalling accumulating the C
major chord over more than five octaves. Due to these reasons, in the main text we give the 
sign written in GC (→GE). See also bars 158-160 and 161.
Compare the passage in the sources »
category imprint: Differences between sources
issues: Authentic corrections of FE
notation: Articulation, Accents, Hairpins