It is safe to say that the fifth study in E minor is less often heard in the concert room than any one of its companions.  I cannot recall having heard it since Annette Essipowa gave that famous recital during which she played the entire twenty-seven studies.  Yet it is a sonorous piano piece, rich in embroideries and general decorative effect in the middle section.  Perhaps the rather perverse, capricious and not altogether amiable character of the beginning has caused pianists to be wary of introducing it at a recital.  It is hugely effective and also difficult, especially if played with the same fingering throughout, as Von Bulow suggests.  Niecks quotes Stephen Heller’s partiality for this very study.  In the “Gazette Musicale,” February 24, 1839, Heller wrote of Chopin’s op. 25: 

What more do we require to pass one or several evenings in as perfect a happiness as possible?  As for me, I seek in this collection of poesy—­this is the only name appropriate to the works of Chopin—­some favorite pieces which I might fix in my memory, rather than others.  Who could retain everything?  For this reason I have in my notebook quite particularly marked the numbers four, five and seven of the present poems.  Of these twelve much loved studies—­every one of which has a charm of its own—­the three numbers are those I prefer to all the rest.

The middle part of this E minor study recalls Thalberg.  Von Bulow cautions the student against “the accenting of the first note with the thumb—­right hand—­as it does not form part of the melody, but only comes in as an unimportant passing note.”  This refers to the melody in E. He also writes that the addition of the third in the left hand, Klindworth edition, needs no special justification.  I discovered one marked difference in the Klindworth edition.  The leap in the left hand—­first variant of the theme, tenth bar from beginning—­is preceded by an appoggiatura, E natural.  The jump is to F sharp, instead of G, as in the Mikuli, Kullak and Riemann editions.  Von Bulow uses the F sharp, but without the ninth below.  Riemann phrases the piece so as to get the top melody, B, E and G, and his stems are below instead of above, as in Mikuli and Von Bulow.  Kullak dots the eighth note.  Riemann uses a sixteenth, thus: 

[Musical score excerpt]

Kullak writes that the figure 184 is not found on the older metronomes.  This is not too fast for the capriccio, with its pretty and ingenious rhythmical transformations.  As regards the execution of the 13Oth bar, Von Bulow says:  “The acciaccature—­ prefixes—­are to be struck simultaneously with the other parts, as also the shake in bar 134 and following bars; this must begin with the upper auxiliary note.”  These details are important.  Kullak concludes his notes thus: