Op. 21, Concerto in F minor, Mvt I

EE1 encompasses only the Concerto in a version for solo piano – the orchestral parts were not printed by Wessel. It was carefully revised by the publisher, who controlled the notation of accidentals, reviewed performance indications, e.g. by comparing analogous places (e.g. he unified the slurs in the L.H. in bars 316-318) and he replaced Chopin horizontal accents with vertical ones on a number of occasions (e.g. in bar 151 and analog., 185 or 299-300). As a result, EE1 contains much less mistakes than GE1 or FE.

Chopin most probably did not participate in the creation of EE1, although it is difficult to definitely conclude on the issue. The edition includes the majority of the changes introduced in FE2, yet not all, and on the other hand, it contains a significant number of additions and changes that are absent in FE2, including corrections of such mistakes whose detection required, as it seems, something more than a routine revision (e.g. in bar 300). Generally, it can be explained in two ways:

• The copy of FE, being the Stichvorlage for EE, did not include Chopin annotations. Therefore, it was probably a proof copy, including the majority of the corrections introduced to the text of FE1. In the finished FE2, minor retouches were introduced afterwards (including important changes in the 3rd mov. of the Concerto, bar 19 and 343 and 492), whereas EE1 was revised by an attentive and musical reviser.
• The copy that served as the Stichvorlage for EE1 included Chopin's annotations. In this scenario, Chopin corrected two copies of FE1, out of which one became the basis for FE2 and the second – after an additional revision at Wessel's – EE1. The lack of full coordination of both proofreading activities explains both the presence in FE2 of changes overlooked in EE1 and vice versa.

The first possibility practically excludes Chopin's participation in the creation of EE1, whereas in the case of the second one, a part of changes could be coming from him (certainly not all, since it would mean that Chopin controlled one of the proofread copies – "English" – much more carefully than the "French" one, which seems to be highly unlikely). However, it is difficult to indicate a change in EE1 that would not be a correction of a less or more evident mistake or a change unifying analogous places and these are exactly the changes that are characteristic for Chopin proofreading. Those few which might be cosidered here, e.g. ties or slurs added in the 3rd mvt. of the Concerto, bars 97-103 or 325-334, are distinctly at odds with Chopin's notation or even the character of phrase. Due to this reason, according to us, the first presented scenario is more likely.

Among the corrections and changes introduced in EE1 we can find:

• additions of slurs, generally in the L.H., e.g. in bar 4, 6-7, 79-80, 138-140, 141, 209-210, 221, 253-255;
• changes of the range of slurs, e.g. in bar 93, 246;
• revisions, generally additions, of accidentals, including cautionary, e.g. in bar 14, 22, 31, 99-100, 114, 143, 146, 159, 171, 174, 190, 216, 219, 220, 241-244;
• shortening long accents, e.g. in bars 71-72, 80, 109-110;
• addition of a mordent in bar 153, accents in the L.H. in bars 247-248, pedalling in bar 286, staccato dots in bars 289-290;
• addition of a tie to e² in bar 163;
• change of the grace note to a crotchet in bar 208;
• correction of the erroneous placement of the m.s. indication in bar 230;
• corrections of Terzverschreibung mistakes of FE in bar 230, 233, 287, 300 and 330.

The copy presented in mUltimate Chopin comes from a reprint of EE1 in which the original individual cover was replaced with a serial one, listing all Chopin's pieces published by Wessel so far, in this case to the Sonata, op. 58. According to the information included in Annotated Catalogue, it means that the copy was launched between VI and XI 1845.**

* Information after: John Rink, Christophe Grabowski, Annotated Catalogue of Chopin's First Editions.
** see the table in which elements allowing to discern particular versions of this cover together with their dates are listed, item 15.