Herbert Blomstedt, who headed San Francisco Symphony from 1985-95, dies
at age 99
[November 05, 2026]
Herbert Blomstedt, who headed the San Francisco Symphony from
1985-95 and led orchestras in Scandinavia and Germany during a career
over seven decades, died Wednesday. He was 99.
Blomstedt died at his home in Gothenburg, Sweden, according to his
management agency, KünstlerSekretariat am Gasteig.
His final performance was on May 15 with the San Francisco Symphony at
Davies Hall, when he entered the stage in a wheelchair and struggled to
get through Gustav Mahler's Ninth Symphony, which halted for several
minutes during the third movement. He was replaced for concerts the
following two days and canceled future scheduled appearances this year.
“An an extraordinary role model," Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra music
director Manfred Honeck said. "One of the greatest conductors and a
beacon of humanity.”
Blomstedt had performances scheduled into 2027, including with the
Vienna Philharmonic next June, just shy of what would have been his
100th birthday.
“Until the very end, we had hoped to celebrate his 100th birthday with a
concert together,” Vienna Philharmonic chairman Daniel Froschauer said.
Blomstedt was a Seventh-day Adventist who refused to conduct rehearsals
on Friday nights and Saturdays because of the Sabbath but would lead
performances on those days because he considered himself a preacher of
music.
“Every bar, every note is shared by us, and it’s a very intense
communication,” he said of his conducting during an interview with “CBS
Sunday Morning” broadcast last year. “It’s like intense sex.”
He won Grammy Awards for recordings with the San Francisco Symphony of
Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana” in 1993 and of Johannes Brahms’ “Ein
Deutsches Requiem” in 1996.
“My mission is to bring good music to as many people as possible,” he
said in an interview posted in 2020 by the DW Music YouTube channel. “It
makes you think differently. You gave a more keen feeling for
proportions and beauty.”
Blomstedt was principal conductor of the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra
in Sweden from 1954-63, music director of the Oslo Philharmonic from
1962–68, principal conductor of the Danish Radio Symphony from 1967-77
and the Swedish Radio Symphony from 1977-82 and then became chief
conductor of the Staatskapelle Dresden and Semperoper in Germany from
1975-85.
[to top of second column]
|
Swedish conductor Herbert Blomstedt directs the Gewandhaus-orchestra
during the first rehearsal after Blomstedt's official inauguration
for "Gewandhauskapellmeister" (conductor of the Gewandhaus) in the
concert hall in Leipzig, Germany, on Aug. 25, 1998. (AP Photo/Eckehard
Schulz, File)
 “Almost like turning an electrical
switch for me,” he added. “When I hear the sound, it transforms me.
I'm in heaven.”
Esa-Pekka Salonen, who led the San Francisco Symphony from 2020-25,
said during an interview with London's Philharmonia Orchestra in
2021 that he asked Blomstedt how he was filled with joy that
orchestras responded to.
“I refuse to have any stress,” Salonen recalled Blomstedt telling
him. “I only do things I absolutely love. I only conduct music that
matters to me and I only work with people that I like and in some
cases love.”
After leaving San Francisco, Blomstedt was principal conductor of
Hamburg's NDR Symphony Orchestra from 1996-98 and music director of
the Leipzig Gewanhaus Orchestra from 1998-2005.
Born to Swedish parents in Springfield, Massachusetts, on July 11,
1927.
His family moved back to Sweden in 1929 and he attended Stockholm's
Royal Academy of Music and Uppsala University. He studied under Igor
Markevitch, then with Jean Morel at The Juilliard School.
When his scholarship at Juilliard was about to expire, he showed up
without an appointment at Leonard Bernstein's apartment at The
Osborne across from Carnegie Hall, rang the doorbell and left a
half-hour later with a scholarship to study with Bernstein at the
Tanglewood Music Center in Lenox, Massachusetts. Blomstedt was
impressed with Bernstein's musicianship but disliked his exuberant
podium mannerisms.
Blomstedt won the Koussevitzky Conducting Prize in 1953, made his
professional debut with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra
in 1954 and won the Salzburg Conducting Competition in 1955.
He married his wife, the former Waltraud Petersen, in 1955, and she
died in 2003. He is survived by four daughters and seven
grandchildren.
All contents © copyright 2026 Associated Press. All rights reserved |
