Allegretto

Adolf Friedrich Hesse (1809 – 1863) was a German organist and composer.

Hesse was born and died in Breslau. He studied in his home town with the organists Friedrich Wilhelm Berner [de] and Ernst Köhler (1799–1847).

He was taught within the Bach tradition of Silesia. On his first concert tour in Germany he met the organist Christian Heinrich Rinck, with whom he returned to study for six months in 1828-1829:

Rinck was a student of Johann Christian Kittel, who in turn was a student of Johann Sebastian Bach.

In 1831, he became the principal organist at the Bernhardinerkirche in Breslau. Considered one of the most important organists in Germany, his virtuosic playing and agile pedalwork dazzled audiences in Paris, where he played an all-Bach programme—a novelty in France—for the inauguration of the organ at Saint-Eustache in 1844; and in London, where he played at Crystal Palace during the Great Exhibition of 1851.

Back in Breslau, he conducted the symphonic concerts of the city's Opera Orchestra.

One of Hesse's pupils was the Belgian organist Jacques-Nicolas Lemmens, who would later teach Alexandre Guilmant and Charles-Marie Widor.