Herbert Blomstedt, Gentle Antithesis of the Great Conductors, Dies at 99

Herbert Blomstedt died today aged 99, eight months short of the grand concert he had planned for his hundredth birthday. The Swedish-American conductor remained active and in demand well past the age when most maestros have long retired, and he outlived the rest of his breed by decades.

Blomstedt was benign, humorous, devoutly religious and open to contradiction. In an age defined by imperious batons, he stood as a notable outlier — remembered by colleagues and audiences, as Slippedisc's obituary puts it, as "the gentlest, friendliest of maestros."

Where did his career begin?

Born in the United States to Swedish parents and raised partly in Finland, Blomstedt won a pair of conducting competitions in the mid-1950s. His first posts traced a path across the Nordic countries:

• Norrköping Symphony, 1954–1962
• Oslo Philharmonic, 1962–1968
• Danish Radio, 1967–1977
• Swedish Radio Symphony, 1977–1982

In 1975 he made an unlikely professional choice: he accepted the post of chief conductor of the Staatskapelle Dresden in Communist East Germany. His motive was musical, not political. He wanted, above all, to immerse himself in the orchestra's unique involvement with the music of Richard Strauss.

A decade later he crossed the Atlantic. As music director of the San Francisco Symphony from 1985, he became known as the humble antithesis of the music dictators who then held sway over American orchestras.

What kept him working so long?

Blomstedt's late career inverted the usual trajectory. In his 70s he led the North German Radio orchestra and the Leipzig Gewandhaus. Once he turned 80, he found himself in demand with the Berlin and Vienna philharmonic orchestras — ensembles that typically reserve their podiums for a select few.

His longevity had a spiritual dimension. A Seventh Day Adventist by faith, he refused for many years to conduct on the sabbath, from Friday night through Saturday. He relaxed that stance only when he persuaded himself that conducting was not work — it was a service that brought comfort to a needy community.

What does his passing change for the music world?

As an interpreter, Blomstedt left his deepest mark in the Austro-German and Nordic repertoires. He was an outstanding interpreter of Bruckner and Brahms, and even more so of Nielsen and Sibelius — repertoire rooted in the Scandinavian world where he spent his formative decades.

The obituary's verdict on the man is simple: "It is safe to say he hadn't an enemy in the world." He is survived by four daughters.

Blomstedt will be missed for a very long time, and his career stands as evidence that authority on the podium does not require tyranny — a model that younger conductors, in an era still shedding the ghosts of the music dictators, can study and follow.