Antonio Rosetti was a versatile and prolific composer. Although his life numbered only forty-two years—just seven years longer than that of Mozart—he authored over four hundred compositions in most of the instrumental and vocal genres popular in his day, with the notable exception of opera. Like many of his rediscovered colleagues, Rosetti was well recognized by his contemporaries. The music critic Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart (1739–91) considered Rosetti “one of the most beloved composers of our time,” a sentiment seconded by the lexicographer Ernst Ludwig Gerber. Charles Burney in his General History of Music, written during the composer's life-time, included Rosetti among the most popular composers of the late eighteenth century.

Although Rosetti spent most of his life outside the land of his birth, his Bohemian roots are strongly felt in his music. The substantial contribution made to eighteenth-century musical culture by Bohemian musicians has long been recognized, but seldom seriously considered. A partial explanation for this oversight may rest with the fact that, like Rosetti, many of these musicians pursued their careers far from their homeland.4 If considered at all, they are absorbed into their adopted surroundings with little more than passing attention paid to their Bohemian origins. However, when the names of expatriate Bohemian musicians are gathered together in a single accounting, the scope and signiicance of their contribution becomes apparent.