Antonio Rosetti

Who was Antonio Rosetti?

Francesco Antonio Rosetti was a classical era composer and double bass player, and was a contemporary of Haydn and Mozart. The occasional disambiguation with a supposed, but non-existent, "Antonio Rosetti born 1744 in Milan," is due to an error by Ernst Ludwig Gerber in a later edition of his Tonkünstler-Lexikon having mistaken Rosetti for an Italian in the first edition of his own Lexikon, and therefore including Rosetti twice - once as an Italian, once as a German-Czech.

Rosetti was born around 1750 in Litoměřice, a town in Northern Bohemia, and was originally called Franz Anton Rösler. He is believed to have received early musical training from the Jesuits. In 1773 Rosetti left this native country and joined the Hofkapelle of Prince von Öttingen-Wallerstein, whom he served for sixteen years, before becoming Kapellmeister to the Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin in 1789. In 1777, he married Rosina Neher, with whom he had three daughters. In 1781 he was granted leave to spend five months in Paris. Many of the finest ensembles in the city performed his works. Rosetti arranged for his music to be published, including a set of six symphonies published in 1782.