In A the sostenuto indication is written below Adagio and in slightly smaller font. Therefore, it seems that the engraver of GE was right when he decided not to combine the terms in one indication. On the other hand, the correction visible in A – instead of Adagio Chopin initially wrote Lento – shows that the final version of the indication was being developed gradually and that both its parts could have been written at a different time, which would explain the observed inconsistency in notation. Therefore, the FE version (→EE), which could have been added in this form by Chopin to [FC] or even while proofreading FE, can be considered an equal variant. We leave it to the discretion of the performers to decide what impact, if any, it has in practice.
Compare the passage in the sources »
category imprint: Graphic ambiguousness; Differences between sources; Corrections & alterations; Source & stylistic information
issues: Corrections in A, Deletions in A
notation: Verbal indications
