Herbert Blomstedt, who headed San Francisco Symphony, dead at 99
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 ...