Adolphe Gutmann
German pianist and composer (1819–1882)
Adolphe Gutmann (originally Wilhelm Adolf Gutmann) (12 January 1819 – 22 October 1882) was a German pianist and composer who was a pupil and friend of Frédéric Chopin and Franz Liszt.
Life
Gutmann was born in Heidelberg. He came to Paris in 1834, at the age of 15, to study with Chopin, becoming one of the composer's favourites. He performed in concert with Chopin, Liszt, Charles-Valentin Alkan and Pierre-Joseph Zimmerman, Alkan's transcription of part of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony at a concert of 1838. Gutmann was also the dedicatee of Chopin's Scherzo, Op. 39, published in 1839.
Gutmann acted as copyist for a number of Chopin's works (amongst other the Sonata in B-flat minor), and acted as a courier to take Chopin's letters to his family in Warsaw. Gutmann's own set of Etudes (his Op. 12) is dedicated to Chopin. Over time, he went from being Chopin’s favourite pupil to his favourite friend, and even a sort of protector.
The public source identifies “Adolphe Gutmann” as german pianist and composer (1819–1882). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Adolphe, Gutmann and German.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2824698. VIAF identifies the subject as 167686251. The Library of Congress control number is nr94029188. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1819, 1882, 1834 and 1838.
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This entry incorporates text from “Adolphe Gutmann” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.