Beethoven composed those three pieces in 1799, most probably for the musical clock of Count Josef Deym, husband of Jozefin Brunszvik, which Ittzés Gergely has arranged for four flutes. The clock was one of the attractions of the Müller'sche Kunstgalerie founded by the count. In 1790-91 Mozart had also written three pieces for it (K. 594, 608 and 616), the manuscripts of the first two of which were extant in Beethoven's estate.

Since these mechanical contraptions worked with organ pipes, they were also called Flötenuhr (flute clocks), thus to play the pieces on flutes is not to stray too far from the original timbre.

Gergely ITTZÉS is a flautist and lecturer at the Széchenyi István University in Győr, and since 2019 at the Tianjin Juilliard School. He gives concerts and courses all over the world. He has recorded more than 25 CDs and has produced a considerable output as a composer. In his own works for flute, he exploits extended techniques for the instrument. He designed the Flouble fingering chart to present the two-voice multiphonics for the flute, and has written a comprehensive methodology entitled Flautology. His broad repertoire contains a special place for his own transcriptions of works for solo instruments and accompanied by piano by Bach, Bartók, Dohnányi, Paganini, and others. He began to make transcriptions for four flutes as the founder of the TeTraVERSI flute quartet, and he has continued to do so since the ensemble disbanded. This volume is the result of that work.