Op. 16, Rondo in E♭ major

First French edition, based on a lost autograph [A] and most probably proofread by Chopin. In the face of absence of [A], some features of the notation remain ambiguous and its evaluation is difficult – it is, e.g. an ambiguous notation of curved lines (one does not know whether they are motivic slurs or ties – Chopin wrote them differently in autographs) and an imprecise notation of the length of accents. The edition is not free from mistakes; the most significant ones include:

• missing necessary accidentals in bars 48, 173, 274, 305, 326, 367,
• erroneous pitch of notes in bars 49, 99, 135, 221, 222, 341,
• an additional note in bar 93,
• a missing note in the chord in bar 368.

In addition, one may find a number of other inaccuracies of the engraver; some of them may result from Chopin's imprecise notation in the autograph:

• imprecise slurs in bars 33, 138, 230, 241-242, 255-256, 289, 324, 325-326, 335-336, 359, 360, 383-384, 396-399,
• missing dashes marking the range of crescendo in bars 25-26, 148-149,
• an inaccurate hairpin in analog. places in bars 61-62, 77-78,
• a wedge instead of a staccato dot in bar 55,
• a hairpin instead of accents in bars 159, 188, 236, 240, 289, 344-346, 385, 385-386,
• erroneous semiquaver beams in bar 352,
• missing accents in bars 31-32, 284-285, 328,
• possible missing pedalling marks in bars 55, 63, 78-79, 220-225, 282, 363, 371,
• a missing motivic slur in bars 127-128,
• missing staccato dots in bars 164-166, 309, 392,
• a possible oversight of a hairpin in bars 210-211,
• a missing tie in bars 246-247, 313,
• an overlooked syllable of crescendo in bar 255,
• perhaps overlooked a tempo and  in bar 295,
• use of erroneous performance indications: leggiere instead of leggiero and leggieremente instead of leggiermente.

The copy presented in mUltimate Chopin belonged to Chopin's pupil, Napoleon Orda (it could have been offered by Chopin – cf. FE2 of the Etudes, Op. 10), and is the earliest known copy of FE1. The missing price on the cover suggests that it could have been a trial copy, which was sent to Chopin as one of the author's copies. The remaining known copies, slightly later, already include the price.

FE2 & FE3
Three months after the publication, in June 1834, the rights to the Rondo were bought by Chopin's main Parisian publisher, Maurice Schlesinger. FE2 was provided with an updated cover, and the plate number was changed to M.S.1703; however, no changes were introduced to the note text, printed from original Pleyel plates. An example of FE2 presented in mUltimate Chopin is the FEJ pupil's copy.
By the end of 1845, when Schlesinger withdrew from publishing activities, Chopin's works, including the Rondo, were passed to the Brandus et Cie company (in 1858-1872 Brandus & Dufour). We mark the reprints of FE2 endorsed by that publisher and provided with the collective cover 'Édition Originale. Œuvres Complètes' [Original Edition. Complete Works] as FE3. The note text was left unchanged.