Herbert Blomstedt
Conductor Herbert Blomstedt is a member of the top rank of modern conductors, having held long-term music directorships in both Europe and the U.S. Specializing in Romantic and early 20th century repertory, he has recorded a substantial body of work and has remained active into great old age.
Blomstedt was born on July 11, 1927, in Springfield, Massachusetts, but his parents were Swedish, and they returned to their home country when Blomstedt was four. He grew up partly in Finland. His mother gave him piano lessons, and he took courses at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm while pursuing a general degree at the University of Uppsala. Drawn to conducting, he traveled to Paris for lessons with Igor Markevitch. This phase of Blomstedt's education laid the groundwork for his later versatility as a conductor as he studied contemporary music in the fertile city of Darmstadt in 1949, took pioneering classes in Baroque music with Paul Sacher at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Switzerland, and took lessons at the Juilliard School in New York with Jean Morel, and with Leonard Bernstein at the Tanglewood Festival in Massachusetts. Blomstedt's career was launched as he won the Koussevitsky Conducting Prize in 1953 and the Salzburg Conducting Competition in 1955. He made his professional debut in 1954 with the Stockholm Philharmonic and was appointed the music director of the Nörrkoping Symphony, where he remained through 1961. The first part of Blomstedt's career was marked by Scandinavian successes. He held the post of first conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic from 1962 to 1968 and was appointed music director of the Royal Danish Symphony in Copenhagen in 1967, remaining in that post until 1977. The musicians of the Staatskapelle Dresden in what was then East Germany invited him to become their music director in 1975, and his ten-year tenure there was marked by recordings and major tours through the East Bloc and beyond. Blomstedt became familiar to American audiences as the music director of the San Francisco Symphony, a position he assumed in 1985, surmounting difficulties that arose as the orchestra was split into two parts. In 1995, Blomstedt returned to Europe as the music director of the NDR Symphony in Hamburg, moving three years later to the same post with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. His long career brought him a profusion of guest conducting opportunities, and he has amassed an impressive collection of conductor laureate posts, remaining active into old age. A member of the Seventh-Day Adventist church, Blomstedt does not rehearse on Friday nights or Saturdays, but he does conduct, interpreting performances as expressions of religious devotion.
Blomstedt's recording catalog is vast, comprising well over 125 albums, including many from the LP era; many of the latter have been reissued in digital form. His repertory runs from Beethoven through the 19th century and well into the 20th, with special emphasis on the music of Carl Nielsen, Franz Berwald, and other Scandinavian composers. He has also recorded the symphonies of Bruckner at several points in his career. Blomstedt has remained active as a recording artist even after slowing his schedule of live performances. His recording of the Brahms Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 73, with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, was released in 2021 when the conductor was 93.
© James Manheim /TiVo
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Schubert: Symphonies Nos. 8 "Unfinished" & 9 "The Great"
Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Herbert Blomstedt
Symfonische muziek - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 8 jul. 2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bruckner: The 9 Symphonies (Live)
Herbert Blomstedt, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig
Klassiek - Released by Accentus Music on 3 feb. 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart : Symphonies Nos. 40 & 41
Herbert Blomstedt, Symphonieorchester Des Bayerischen Rundfunks
Symfonieën - Released by BR-Klassik on 7 sep. 2018
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Complete Symphonies (Remastered)
Staatskapelle Dresden, Herbert Blomstedt
Klassiek - Released by Berlin Classics on 17 apr. 2020
24-Bit 88.2 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Symphonies Nos. 39, 40 & 41
Herbert Blomstedt, Symphonieorchester Des Bayerischen Rundfunks
Klassiek - Released by BR-Klassik on 24 mrt. 2023
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Quintessence Schubert: Complete Symphonies, Rosamunde
Staatskapelle Dresden, Herbert Blomstedt
Klassiek - Released by Brilliant Classics on 1 okt. 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Brahms: Symphonies 3 & 4
Herbert Blomstedt, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig
Symfonieën - Released by PENTATONE on 5 jun. 2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Mahler: Symphony No. 9 in D Major (Live)
Bamberger Symphoniker, Herbert Blomstedt
Klassiek - Released by Accentus Music on 7 jun. 2019
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven Complete Symphonies
Staatskapelle Dresden, Herbert Blomstedt
Klassiek - Released by Brilliant Classics on 28 mei 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart & Voříšek: Orchestral Works
Herbert Blomstedt, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig
Klassiek - Released by Accentus Music on 17 jun. 2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Brahms: Symphony No. 1 & Tragic Overture
Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Herbert Blomstedt
Symfonieën - Released by PENTATONE on 25 sep. 2020
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Nielsen: Symphonies, Tone Poems & Concertos
Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Herbert Blomstedt
Klassiek - Released by Warner Classics on 22 apr. 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Brahms: Symphony No. 2 & Academic Festival Overture
Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Herbert Blomstedt
Symfonieën - Released by PENTATONE on 23 apr. 2021
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Leonore (Urfassung 1805 der Oper "Fidelio") (Original Version from 1805)
Staatskapelle Dresden, Rundfunkchor Leipzig, Herbert Blomstedt
Opera - Released by Eterna on 1 jan. 1977
24-Bit 88.2 kHz - Stereo -
Bruckner: Symphony No. 3
Berliner Philharmoniker, Herbert Blomstedt
Symfonieën - Released by Berliner Philharmoniker Recordings on 18 feb. 2022
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Hindemith: Symphonie 'Mathis der Maler' / Trauermusik / Symphonic Metamorphosis
San Francisco Symphony, Herbert Blomstedt
Klassiek - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 jan. 1988
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Strauss: Also Sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30
Herbert Blomstedt, Staatskapelle Dresden
Klassiek - Released by Denon on 30 aug. 1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Brahms: Ein deutsches Requiem (Wolfgang Holzmair – The Philips Recitals, Vol. 13)
Elizabeth Norberg-Schulz, Wolfgang Holzmair, San Francisco Symphony Chorus, San Francisco Symphony, Herbert Blomstedt
Klassiek - Released by Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd. on 1 jan. 1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Missa Solemnis
Simone Schneider, Herbert Blomstedt, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig
Symfonische muziek - Released by Querstand on 3 dec. 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Last Four Symphonies
Herbert Blomstedt, Staatskapelle Dresden
Klassiek - Released by Denon on 15 sep. 1998
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Sibelius: The Symphonies
San Francisco Symphony, Herbert Blomstedt
Klassiek - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 jan. 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo