Op. 2, Variations, complete

First German edition encompassing the version for one piano and orchestral parts. The present commentary, as well as the notes concerning the text, apply only to the version for one piano, encompassing the solo piano part and the piano reduction of the orchestral fragments (tutti). To mark the instrumental parts constituting the orchestral part printed in GE1, we sometimes use – wherever such a reference is necessary to determine the text of the version for one piano – the symbol GEork.

GE1 was prepared on the basis of A, generally reproducing the text very carefully and performing indispensable revision of accidentals. Nevertheless, in many places slurs, dynamic indications and staccato marks are placed inaccurately or erroneously due to a routine interpretation of the manuscript. Changes to the beams are also numerous and significant – the engraver would make his work easier by combining quavers or semiquavers in standard groups, e.g. in the L.H. part in the Theme or in entire Variation IV. The Chopinesque differentiation between the staccato marks (dots and wedges) was preserved only occasionally; generally, they were standardised by replacing dots with wedges. In the case of GE1 there are no authorial changes to the text introduced in the stage of proofreading (cf. the proofreading of FE1), so typical of Chopin's later pieces. It can be related to the fact that the Variations were Chopin's first composition printed by a recognised publishing company in a leading European music centre. Does it mean that Chopin did not proofread GE1 at all? It is difficult to say – wherever the patent errors were changed to the correct text, the composer's participation in the development of the edition cannot be excluded. There are also places in which a Chopinesque inspiration of unobvious changes introduced into GE1 seems highly likely, e.g. the removal of the repetition of the second part of the Theme, bars 79-95.

In GE1 bar 237 is an evident example of foreign interventions (revisions), in which the correctly printed text of A was changed to a wrong one in the printing process, which could not have been performed by Chopin.
There are copies of GE1 that differ in the cover page, that is some contain the information on the instruments needed to perform the piece – "avec accompagmement d'orchestre" [with orchestra]. The copy presented by mUltimate Chopin does not contain in; in other copies, a relevant text is present, as is the case with A.