Liebesleid (Love's Sorrow) - Kreisler (arr. Rachmaninoff), tie or slur?

Question

I'm currently learning Liebesleid (Love's Sorrow) - Kreisler (arr. Rachmaninoff) and I'm a bit confused about the last tie/slur of this part. Is it the E that's tied or is it the A that's slurred?

At first I thought it was 3 ties but I think the last one is a slur?

Answer 1

It's definitely a slur from the A to the G♮, and for at least a few reasons:

1. The beginning of this slur/tie is above the initial E. Engravers make mistakes, but that's a hard mistake to rationalize.
2. The first edition of the score makes it pretty clear that the A on beat 1 ultimately moves to the F♯ in the next measure, thereby connecting this A to G♮:

3. And if it were a tie connecting two Es, the engraver likely would have just written a dotted half note.

Answer 2

That last E is definitely not tied to the one before it in that second bar shown. If it was, the 'tie' line would start below the first E. It's a slur line, referring to the A>G♯>G♮ chromatic run. Also, since both Es are shown with stems down, it would have made more sense to write a dotted minim at the beginning, had it supposedly been a note lasting the whole bar.