er brought
him to Paris to place him under Chopin. The latter, however, did not at
first feel inclined to accept the proposed trust; but on hearing the boy
play he conceived so high an idea of his capacities that he agreed to
undertake his artistic education. Chopin seems to have always retained
a thorough belief in his muscular pupil, although some of his great
pianist friends thought this belief nothing but a strange delusion.
There are also piquant anecdotes told by fellow-pupils with the purpose
of showing that Chopin did not care very much for him. For instance, the
following: Some one asked the master how his pupil was getting on, "Oh,
he makes very good chocolate," was the answer. Unfortunately, I cannot
speak of Gutmann's playing from experience, for although I spent eight
days with him, it was on a mountain-top in the Tyrol, where there were
no pianos. But Chopin's belief in Gutmann counts with me for something,
and so does Moscheles' reference to him as Chopin's "excellent pupil";
more valuable, I think, than either is the evidence of Dr. A. C.
Mackenzie, who at my request visited Gutmann several times in Florence
and was favourably impressed by his playing, in which he noticed
especially beauty of tone combined with power. As far as I can make
out Gutmann planned only once, in 1846, a regular concert-tour, being
furnished for it by Chopin with letters of introduction to the
highest personages in Berlin, Warsaw, and St. Petersburg. Through the
intervention of the Countess Rossi (Henriette Sontag), he was invited to
play at a court-concert at Charlottenburg in celebration of the King's
birthday. [FOOTNOTE: His part of the programme consisted of his master's
E minor Concerto (2nd and 3rd movements) and No. 3 of the first book of
studies, and his own tenth study.] But the day after the concert he
was seized with such home-sickness that he returned forthwith to Paris,
where he made his appearance to the great astonishment of Chopin.
The reader may perhaps be interested in what a writer in the Gazette
Musicale said about Chopin's favourite pupil on March 24, 1844:--

M. Gutmann is a pianist with a neat but somewhat cold style of
playing; he has what one calls fingers, and uses them with
much dexterity. His manner of proceeding is rather that of
Thalberg than of the clever professor who has given him
lessons. He afforded pleasure to the lovers of the piano
[amateurs de piano] at the musical SOIREE which