The much loved Swedish-American musician, particularly known for his work with the San Francisco Symphony and Leipzig Gewandhaus, continued performing until earlier this year
The conductor Herbert Blomstedt has died aged 99. His career stretched over an extraordinary seven decades and he continued to conduct and tour into his late 90s; his final concert was earlier this year, aged 98.
Born in Massachusetts, US, in July 1927 to Swedish parents, the musician grew up in Sweden and Finland. His conducting tutors included Igor Markevitch, Jean Morel and Leonard Bernstein.
He made his conducting debut with the Stockholm Philharmonic in 1954. Posts that followed included principal conductor of Oslo Philharmonic (1962-68), and a decade in the same role with Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra (1967-77). He led the Staatskapelle Dresden from 1975-85 and was music director of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra from 1985 to 1995.
He worked with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra from 1998 to 2005, and in the final two decades of his life, developed a close relationship with London’s Philharmonia, first conducting the orchestra in 2006 at the Edinburgh festival. His last London appearance was in November 2024 to conduct Mahler’s final completed symphony, the Ninth. “To conduct any orchestra aged 97 is exceptional. To conduct Mahler’s Ninth Symphony aged 97 is nonpareil,” wrote the Guardian’s Martin Kettle at the time. “[But] put Blomstedt’s age to one side for a moment: this performance required no special pleading. Yes, it took a while to get into its irresistible stride, and the ländler second movement briefly lost momentum. But the hurtling rondo was terrifyingly vivid and the final adagio Olympian. It was one of the finest Mahler Ninths one is likely to hear.”
The last concert Blomstedt conducted was in May in San Francisco, where he was the symphony orchestra’s conductor laureate. However he was very frail, and his performance (also of Mahler 9) had to be halted temporarily after he collapsed in the third movement.
On his biography page of the San Francisco Symphony’s website, it notes he was: “Noble, charming, sober, modest. Such qualities … are rather atypical for extraordinary personalities such as conductors … Herbert Blomstedt is an exception, precisely because he possesses those very qualities which seemingly have so little to do with a conductor’s claim to power.”
As well as the San Francisco Symphony relationship, Blomstedt was honorary conductor of the Bamberg Symphony, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo’s NHK Symphony, Swedish Radio Symphony, Staatskapelle Dresden, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra and the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra.
Blomstedt was an invigorating presence on the podium well into his 10th decade. “Blomstedt’s … enthusiasm for making music is as irrepressible as ever,” wrote Andrew Clements, reviewing him in 2019. “His programme consisted of two symphonies … that he must have conducted countless times before in his 60-year career, but there was no trace of routine in either performance.”
The conductor was one of the world’s leading interpreters of the music of Beethoven, Brahms, Mendelssohn and Bruckner. His Sibelius and Nielsen symphony cycles were particularly acclaimed. Among the awards and honours he received were two Grammys and a Gramophone award, and earlier this autumn he was named a laureate of the Praemium Imperiale.
He died at his home in Gothenburg, Sweden. Lothar Schacke, Blomstedt’s manager for almost four decades, said in a statement: “The loss of Herbert Blomstedt fills me and my colleagues with deep grief. Each encounter with him was a gift, his kindness, knowledge, wisdom, and gentle humour enriching us intellectually and emotionally.”
