Adolfo Fumagalli
1828 — 1856
Adolfo Fumagalli was a 19th-century Italian virtuoso pianist and composer, known today primarily for his virtuosic compositions for the left hand alone.
Adapted from the Wikipedia article on Adolfo Fumagalli.
From the period sources
Adolfo Fumagalli, one of four musical brothers from Inzago, Italy, was an excellent pianist who toured brilliantly throughout Italy, France, and Belgium, earning him the sobriquet “Paganini of the pianoforte,” according to A Biographical Dictionary of Musicians (1900). He received his early training from Gaetano Medaglia, later studying with Angeleri and Ray at the Milan Conservatory from 1837 to 1847. Fumagalli published a great number of “elegant and effective” piano pieces that achieved “extraordinary vogue,” as noted in the 1900 dictionary, and Biographical Dictionary of Musicians (1886) further describes his output as “an immense quantity of brilliant Pf. pieces, and songs of various degrees of merit.” His life and works were the subject of a sketch by Filippo Filippi, and the writer Antonio Ghislanzoni also included notes on the pianist in his “Reminiscenze artistiche.”