Friedrich Witt was born in Niederstetten on 8 November 1770. At about the age of 17 he came to the court of Oettingen-Wallerstein, presumably as a pupil of Antonio Rosetti (1750–1792). An appointment decree dated 21 January 1790 in the Wallerstein archive states that Witt came from Mergentheim and had been employed as a cellist in the court orchestra since 1 October, with an annual salary of 300 gulden.
The prince repeatedly granted Witt leave for concert tours. He undertook some of these with the clarinettist Joseph Beer (1770–1819), who was also engaged at Wallerstein, travelling to Potsdam, Ludwigslust and Vienna, among other places. Witt probably stayed in Vienna for an extended period from 1796. In 1802 the Prince-Bishop of Würzburg appointed him court Kapellmeister, a post he held until the court music was dissolved in 1814. From 1804 he was also music director at the newly founded Würzburg Stadttheater. Friedrich Witt died, highly esteemed, in Würzburg on 3 January 1836.
The concertos for 2 horns presented here were probably composed during his time in Vienna. A copy of one of the three concertos for 2 horns, now held in the music collection of the National Library in Vienna, bears the date 1797. For which horn players these concertos were intended can only be surmised. They may have been meant for Nagel and Zwierzina, whom Witt knew from his time at the court of Oettingen-Wallerstein. Both horn players demonstrably made several tours to Vienna at this time.
