WN 37, Lento con gran espressione

Copy made by Mily Balakirev almost certainly from CK. It contains a number of arbitrary changes and additions, e.g. slurring and, in a few places, fingering. The copy was written neatly, with visible care rather for legibility and logic of performance markings than for fidelity to the original. According to Gastone Belotti*, the Russian composer used it during the first documented, public performance of the Lento at a concert in the Warsaw Music Society, on an anniversary of Chopin's death (17 October 1894). Such a genesis of CB corresponds very well to its form and contents; however, it must be said that the then press coverage of the concert reported that Balakirev performed directly from CK**.

CB plays an auxiliary role in the edition of Lento – it enables the identification of some later, inauthentic additions in CK. 

The most significant changes introduced by Balakirev:

• change of the middle note of the chords at the beginning of b. 2 and 4 from e¹ to d¹;
• additions performed to L.H. slurs – in practice, the entire piece is provided with half-bar slurs;
• additions and changes performed to R.H. slurs, e.g. in b. 13-14, 25, 46-47, 49-50, 52, 54;
• added fingering in b. 16 and 44;
• changes in chromatic orthography, e.g. in b. 18 or 31;
• division of b. 32 into two bars in 2/4 and 3/4; 
• addition of  in b. 53.

^* Un omaggio di Chopin alla sorella Ludwika: il «Lento con gran espressione», 'Rivista italiana di musicologia', 1968, vol. 3, No. 1 (1968), p. 62.
** Uroczystości Chopina, 'Echo Muzyczne, Teatralne i Artystyczne', 1894, 577 (42), p. 502.