According to the publisher's cover notes:
These two pieces, nos. 2 and 5, belong to a set of five original compositions that Beethoven wrote for a flute clock which was exhibited in Graf Deym's celebrated cabinet of wax figures and similar works of art in Vienna. Their date of composition is put by Georg Schünemann, who was the first to publish all five pieces in an edition for the piano, at 1792, whilst Kinsky attributes them to 1799. The autographs are in the former Prussian State Library and are kept under the call numbers Gr. 23 and art. 186.
I played these pieces both with
The Schwanewede Recorder Consort (whereby it was one of our best numbers) and with
The Vegesack Double Quartet. This can be played by medium players but the tenor and bass parts are especially demanding in the trio part of the minuet.
I was enormously inspired and help helped by hearing a
Ferdinand Conrad broadcast on NDR in 1982 which I was fortunate to be able to tape.