“Music keeps me young,” Herbert Blomstedt told Bachtrack, back in 2020. The Swedish conductor, who died on 4th November at the age of 99, was active until earlier this year. “I have a great curiosity and in that way I am still like a child. I have learnt a little bit over the years but most of all I’ve learnt that I know far too little.” Typically modest words from a gentle, modest man, the antithesis of the usual tyrannical maestro cliché, who was universally adored by the many orchestras he conducted over a long career.
His unassuming nature and no-fuss conducting style meant that his early career, although not unnoticed, slipped under the radar to a certain extent. It was only in old age that his star rose and he became more widely celebrated, enjoying a golden Indian summer that lasted for decades.
A Seventh-day Adventist, Blomstedt would not rehearse on Saturdays (the Sabbath) but did eventually consent to conducting concerts on Saturdays as he considered performances an expression of his religious devotion rather than actual work.
Blomstedt was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, to Swedish parents on 11th July 1927. When the family moved back to Sweden, he trained at the Stockholm Royal College of Music and studied as a musicologist at the University of Uppsala. He studied conducting with Igor Markevitch and made his debut with Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra in 1954 and was soon appointed Chief Conductor of the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra (1954–62).
Other orchestras Blomstedt led included the Oslo Philharmonic (1962–68), Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra (1967–77), Staatskapelle Dresden (1975–85), Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra (1977–82), San Francisco Symphony (1985–95), NDR Symphony (1996–98) and Leipzig Gewandhaus (1998–2005). He held Conductor Laureate positions with many of his former orchestras as well as the Bamberg Symphony and NHK Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo. In 2019 he was made an Honorary Member of the Wiener Philharmoniker.
For much of his career, Blomstedt was most closely associated with the core Austro-Germanic repertoire – Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Bruckner – as well as championing Scandinavian composers such as Nielsen and Berwald. He celebrated his 97th birthday in July 2024 by conducting Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony in the Basilica of St Florian, where the composer was organist.
Blomstedt recorded a wide discography, mostly stemming from his time in Dresden (which produced fine Beethoven and Schubert symphony cycles) and San Francisco until the very end of his career. In October 2024, he conducted the Gewandhausorchester in the world premiere recording of a recent Mozart discovery, the Serenade in C major, “Ganz kleine Nachtmusik” (Very Little Night Music), K648.
Blomstedt was reflective about his success. “It doesn’t make things easy. Not everyone has the backbone to say no when they get a wonderful invitation. For the development of an artistic personality you need time and interest in a broad spectrum of things.”
