Herbert Blomstedt

Life and career

Herbert Blomstedt was born on 11 July 1927 in Springfield, Massachusetts, to Swedish parents. His father, Adolf Blomstedt (1898–1981), was a Seventh-day Adventist missionary, and his mother, Alida Armintha Thorson (1899–1957), was a pianist. He grew up with an elder brother and later a younger sister. Two years after his birth, the family moved back to their country of origin. He also lived in Finland during his youth. Blomstedt remembered Gothenburg as the city where he grew up and took first violin lessons with Lars Fermæus, principal violinist of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra.

Blomstedt studied at the Stockholm Royal College of Music and musicology at the University of Uppsala, followed by studies of contemporary music at the Darmstädter Ferienkurse in 1949, Baroque music with Paul Sacher at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, and further conducting studies with Igor Markevitch, Jean Morel at the Juilliard School, and Leonard Bernstein at Tanglewood's Berkshire Music Center.

Career

Blomstedt won the Koussevitzky Conducting Prize in 1953 and the Salzburg Conducting Competition in 1955. He conducted the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra first in 1954.

Blomstedt was music director or principal conductor of the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra (1954–1962), Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra (1962–1968), Danish Radio Symphony (1967–1977) and Swedish Radio Symphony (1977–1982). From 1975 to 1985, he served as chief conductor of the Staatskapelle Dresden as well as the Saxon State Opera, in the process making many well-regarded recordings, including works by Richard Strauss and the complete Beethoven and Schubert symphonies, and leading the orchestra on international tours including to countries of the Eastern Bloc.

He was music director of the San Francisco Symphony from 1985 to 1995, leading the orchestra on regular tours of Europe and Asia. They made numerous recordings for London/Decca, earning two Grammy Awards, a Gramophone Award and a Grand Prix du Disque, as well as awards from Belgium, Germany, and Japan. Blomstedt was principal conductor of the North German Radio Symphony from 1996 to 1998, and of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra from 1998 to 2005.

Blomstedt held the title of conductor laureate with the San Francisco Symphony and was honorary conductor of the Bamberg Symphony, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, NHK Symphony, Swedish Radio Symphony, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Staatskapelle Dresden, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra and the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra.

Blomstedt was most noted for his performances of German and Austrian composers, such as Beethoven, Schubert, Felix Mendelssohn, Johannes Brahms, Anton Bruckner, Strauss and Paul Hindemith, and also as a champion of Scandinavian composers, such as Edvard Grieg, Franz Berwald, Jean Sibelius and Carl Nielsen.

A devout Seventh-day Adventist, Blomstedt did not rehearse on Friday nights or Saturdays, the Sabbath in Seventh-day Adventism. He conducted concerts without that restriction, as he considered performances to be an expression of his religious devotion. His conducting style has been described as "disciplined and serene, using minimal, refined gestures without a baton, as he believes the orchestra needs a musician to communicate with". Gerald Felber wrote in his obituary for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that he conducted with "calmness, a long breath and serene kindness", serving the epic-narrative works by Nielsen and Sibelius and also Bruckner's "cosmic conceptions" well.

In his last concert in London, in 2024, he conducted Mahler's Ninth Symphony. A reviewer for Classic FM described him as "in complete control", using "contained but crystal-clear gestures" to "communicate his expressive thoughts". Reviewer Martin Kettle wrote for The Guardian: 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.

At age 98, he continued to conduct, and in February 2025, he completed a series of concerts with the San Francisco Symphony. In October 2025, he conducted a series of concerts with the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo. In May 2026, Blomstedt conducted two performances of Mahler's Ninth Symphony with the Detroit Symphony at Orchestra Hall. Also in May 2026, he returned to San Francisco to perform a series of three concerts with the same symphony. Blomstedt conducted the first of the series. In the third movement, the music came to a halt; he was given a different seat with armrests, and was able to resume the performance. It became his last concert as he was advised not to complete the series.

Personal life

Blomstedt married Waltraud "Traute" Peterson in 1955. They had four daughters and seven grandchildren. His wife died in 2003. He was a vegetarian.

Blomstedt died in Gothenburg, Sweden, on 4 November 2026, at the age of 99.

Awards

1993 and 1996 Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance

2014 Rolf Schock Prize – Musical arts

2016 Léonie Sonning Music Prize

2017 Brahms Prize

2022 Rheingau Musik Preis

2022 Knight Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany

2023 Opus Klassik for life's work

2026 Praemium Imperiale in the category Music

In 2026, Blomstedt was honored with a bust at Berwaldhallen in Stockholm.