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Carlo Besozzi (1738-c.1798), an oboist active at the court of the Elector of Saxony in Dresden from 1755 until 1792, was an outstanding member of a prolific Italian woodwind dynasty. The style of his C-major oboe concerto is reminiscent of that found in the oboe concerto in the same key composed by Johann Stamitz (1717-1757) of Mannheim. One of the main attractions of the present work is that today's double reed players are given the opportunity to utilize Besozzi's famous wide range of dynamics. This composition contains several thematic sections that utilize repetitive motives for which the solo performer must devise his or her own solutions insofar as dynamics are concerned. The utilization of leaps in the tessitura of the solo part within the outer movements is noteworthy, as is the ornamentation of the slow movement, which presents some tricky subdivision problems for the performers to solve.

The manuscript parts from which I made the edition comes from Schloss Wallerstein near Ansbach. It was copied about 1770, and is part of a great collection owned by the Öttingen-Wallerstein Family which was made available to the public in microfiche during the late 1980's. As in the Besozzi Sonata for oboe and bassoon, found earlier in the Double Reed Archaeologist, appoggituras and trills abound. All three movements are laid out in ritornello form, the first with sonata-form overlay. A harpsichord should be utilized to realize the unfigured bass.