Thanks to its programmatic subtitle, ‘The Rage over a Lost Penny’, which was not by the composer, Beethoven's Rondo ‘Alla ingharese quasi un Capriccio’ became one of his most famous piano pieces. Beethoven's – albeit not entirely complete – autograph of the work from around 1795 has survived. It is the main source of the new edition; the first edition, published posthumously by Diabelli, provided a reasonably plausible orientation for missing parts in the original manuscript.

In a few problematic cases, more convincing solutions were sought on the basis of the autograph material. In addition to the preface, the critical notes provide information on the musical text, while the editor's notes on interpretation trace the character of the work apart from its inauthentic subtitle.