The protagonist of these recordings owed his posthumous fame to an error. The Jena Symphony, discovered in the city's university library in 1909, was thoroughly studied, discussed, and even recorded as a supposed early work by Beethoven. However, since 1968 it has been established that the composition is by no means the titan's "zero" symphony, but rather the 14th of 23 symphonies that Friedrich Witt wrote in Niederstetten, Baden-Württemberg, many of which were also published.

A full five weeks older than his colleague from Bonn, whom he outlived by nine years, he had been court conductor in Würzburg since 1802, where his symphonic output took an astonishing turn and was apparently renumbered. The three symphonies recorded here, Nos. 1 to 3, were written a few years earlier than their much-praised cousin, but consistently display uncompromising quality.