CONDUCTOR HERBERT BLOMSTEDT DIES AT 99 AFTER SEVEN-DECADE CAREER

Herbert Blomstedt, a conductor whose career spanned seven decades, has died at 99. He died on Wednesday at his home in Gothenburg, Sweden, according to his management agency, KünstlerSekretariat am Gasteig. Born in Massachusetts in 1927 to Swedish parents, he grew up in Sweden and Finland and studied under Igor Markevitch, Jean Morel and Leonard Bernstein. He made his conducting debut with the Stockholm Philharmonic in 1954.

He went on to lead the Oslo Philharmonic, Danish Radio Symphony and Staatskapelle Dresden, before becoming music director of the San Francisco Symphony from 1985 to 1995. He later headed the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and formed a close relationship with London's Philharmonia, first conducting it at the Edinburgh festival in 2006. A Seventh-day Adventist, he refused to conduct rehearsals on Friday nights and Saturdays because of the Sabbath, though he still led performances on those days, regarding himself as "a preacher of music." "Every bar, every note is shared by us, and it's a very intense communication," he said of conducting. "It's like intense sex."

Blomstedt's last London appearance came in November 2024, when he conducted Mahler's Ninth Symphony. His final concert took place on 15 May at Davies Hall in San Francisco, where he held the title of conductor laureate; he entered in a wheelchair, and the performance of the same symphony halted in the third movement after he collapsed. He was replaced for the following two concerts and cancelled his remaining engagements that year. He had performances scheduled into 2027, including with the Vienna Philharmonic the following June, shortly before what would have been his 100th birthday.