Chopin Ballade no. 4... After nearly 2 years, on and off, of studying and polishing this piece, I am still contemplating the right hand at the downbeat of m223 and again at m225 (I numbered measures myself, forgive me if this is incorrect):

Is it Eb (Peters ed) or F (Dover ed) over G# ?? F is in the bass. Both function .. Eb fits sequence (Eb, Gb, A, C), and if you think of the G# as Ab, then F tonicizes (which I think brings about a fleeting moment of tranquility in this tempestuous coda)..

Which do you use, or which have you most commonly heard in performance?

~mstrongpianist

Henle gives G-sharp/F in the right hand over F/C in the left in measure 223, and G-sharp/F in the right hand over F octave in the left in measure 225. There is no note in the comments indicating any differences from other source materials.

Regards,

The Scholz edition published by Peters is the only one I've seen that has an Eâ™­ instead of F in those two measures.

The Joseffy edition published by Schirmer acknowledges Scholz's divergence in a footnote to each measure, but doesn't offer an explanation for it.

In an interesting twist, the original German edition of Breitkopf & Härtel (at Chopin's First Editions Online) has the conventional G♯ and F in bar 223 but no dyad at all in bar 225—only G♯.

Klindworth, ever the contrarian, notates the G♯ as A♭ in both places.

Steven

I don't think I've ever heard anyone play an E-flat in that spot. And I've probably heard 50 different performances.

Neither have I, but I started listening to numerous recordings today to see if I'd missed something! But now I'm wondering, how would that go over with listeners if I were to play Scholtz's e-flat... hm...

~mstrongpianist