Adolf Gutmann

Gutmann is a German or Jewish surname, colloquially meaning “husband”, “yeoman”, or “working man”.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article on Gutmann (surname).

From the period sources

Adolf Gutmann, born in Heidelberg in 1819 according to the Biographical Dictionary of Musicians (1886), or in Paris of German parents in 1818 as stated by Fétis’s Biographie universelle des musiciens (1883), was an eminent pianist and a prolific composer primarily of pianoforte music. He is chiefly remembered as a pupil and intimate friend of Frédéric Chopin, a connection highlighted by Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1906) and the Dictionary of Music (1896). Indeed, Gutmann was present at Chopin’s deathbed in 1849, taking an affectionate leave of his friend, and later served as a pallbearer at Chopin’s public funeral in Paris, alongside figures like Meyerbeer and Delacroix, as recounted in The History of Music (1886).

Gutmann’s compositions, which included chamber and piano music “in great variety” (Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, 1886), were often of a “rather ephemeral kind,” though Grove’s Dictionary (1906) notes that his set of ten Études caractéristiques is considered the most valuable. Fétis’s Biographie universelle (1883) records about twenty of his works, including fantasies on opera themes, nocturnes, and characteristic marches for piano, published in Paris, Brunswick, and Leipzig. In 1847, Gutmann toured Germany, performing in concerts in Hanover, Brunswick, and Leipzig. Some of his pieces, such as those from his Op. 28, 33, and 46, gained recognition, and his 10 Études caractéristiques, Op. 12, were recommended by A Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1880). He passed away in Spezia in 1882.