Besozzi was born in Naples, or in Dresden as reported by another source, as the son of
oboist and
composer Antonio Besozzi, who was undoubtedly his teacher. From 1754 Carlo Besozzi joined his father as oboist in the
Dresden Kapelle, in the service of the Electress of Saxony
Maria Antonia Walpurgis. However, the Dresden opera house was destroyed by the Prussians in the
Seven Years' War (1756–63), breaking up the remarkable group of musicians assembled by
Elector Frederick Augustus II. He performed in Paris in December of that year and escaped to London in early 1757. He then traveled extensively through Germany, France and Italy, acquiring by that time not only almost unparalleled skill on the oboe, but also even greater reputation than his father, and spent 1758–9 playing under
Niccolò Jommelli in Stuttgart. His father was back on the Dresden payroll by 1764, and Carlo stayed with the court until the year of his death. In September 1772, when
Charles Burney visited Dresden, praised his extremely delicate flavor, beautiful tone and intonation. He accurately described the technique employed by Besozzi to play his instrument. In September 1774 Carlo took a leave from his duties at the Saxon capital and went to Turin, where he visited his parents and may have waited out the rest of the war there. He was in Salzburg in May 1778, where he was deemed positively by Leopold Mozart. In 1792 he left Dresden and went back to Italy, disappearing from the public ==Musical works==