Rach Etude-Tableau Opus 39 #6: Correction or ?: The "closing" G# in Measure 16

[mrcreosote]

There is a distinct pattern in measures 9, 16, and 17 except 16 is different.

My ear is screaming to me that I should play 16 like the rest.

Here is the difference:

In 9 & 17, the second beat F#'s are flatted to F's in the third beat
In 16, the second beat G#'s are NOT flatted to G's in the third beat

Of course, I'm just learning this and my speed is very slow.  I've tried to hack through it at speed but it still doesn't sound right  When I try to listen to someone playing it on youtube, it is just so fast I can't hear the individual notes.  (Is everyone able to discern individual notes at that speed?  Due to the pattern of the "melody" and pedal, I can't.)

[visitor]

consult other editions and note if the score is the same between both versions.

you are discussing the left hand in isolation, but the music has things happening in the right hand, that context is important in analyzing the harmony, voice leading, secondary or implied mode shift/change.

if the score is correct then play as written if there are discrepancies between two editions, seek a third and see which it correlates to.

analyze the scale and harmony implied and frame it in a late romantic sort of lens to further figure out what needs to be done. I encounter score mistakes here and there and when no other reference is available (most recently an out of print 'rare' score I'm working with, so the theory led me to believe there was a printing or editing mistake since the harmony and scale 'had to ' behave in a certain way or it would be against the convention, period style, and normal writing for the composer)

[mrcreosote]

Oops, forgot to mention, I saw this in the RIGHT hand, but as you say, this note also appears in the LH an octave lower.

Since the octave is preserved in all 3 measures, it is less likely there was a correction/error since it appears in both hands.

Of course, just how do composers score a piece?  Is this "octave" realized as a single entity or as two individual notes?  AND, since they write the notes from memory (if sometimes only a few seconds ago) there is always room for error.

My edition is the #983 International Music Company.