WN 37, Lento con gran espressione

Copy by Oskar Kolberg, the only one extant of several* perpetuating the version of [A2]. It is difficult to state whether this is the first copy, made directly from the autograph; however, it seems that it faithfully conveys the layout of [A2], which Kolberg described as follows in the letter quoted in the footnote: '[... Lento] was written in small handwriting on a quarter letter size sheet'. In turn, it is almost certain that CK was used to prepare CB, which is indicated by the circumstances in which Balakirev performed the piece from a manuscript on 17 October 1894 – see the characterization of CB. In order not to complicate the filiation with hypothetical manuscripts, without influence on the mutual relationships between the sources, in our notes we assume that CK is based on [A2]. For a long time, even until 1950s, this manuscript was generally regarded as Chopin's autograph (this erroneous piece of information can be encountered even nowadays).

CK contains a few mistakes, out of which the most serious one is the change of the bass note in b. 8 from f to d. It also contains certain arbitrary changes, which were probably the first attempts to perform the additions in b. 35-41, which appeared in EL.

^* From a letter sent by Oskar Kolberg to Marceli Antoni Szulc (15 Dec. 1874), preceding the publication of Lento, it follows that at least two such copies must have existed: "[...] I already had a copy [of the autograph] in a file at home, a new copy of which I enclose." Korespondencja Oskara Kolberga. Cz. I, 1837-1876, Wrocław, Kraków, Warszawa 1965, p. 508, available on polona.pl (in Polish).