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
Artisti simili
-
Mahler: Symphony No.2
Ruth Ziesak, Charlotte Hellekant, San Francisco Symphony Chorus, San Francisco Symphony, Herbert Blomstedt
Classica - Pubblicato da Decca Music Group Ltd. il 1 gen 1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Grieg: Peer Gynt (Incidental Music)
San Francisco Symphony Chorus, San Francisco Symphony, Herbert Blomstedt
Classica - Pubblicato da Decca Music Group Ltd. il 4 mag 1989
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Nielsen: Complete Symphonies; Aladdin Suite; Maskarade
San Francisco Symphony, Herbert Blomstedt, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Ulf Schirmer
Classica - Pubblicato da Decca Music Group Ltd. il 1 gen 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mendelssohn: Piano Concertos Nos.1 & 2 etc
Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Herbert Blomstedt
Classica - Pubblicato da Decca Music Group Ltd. il 1 gen 2001
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Brahms: Works for Chorus & Orchestra
Jard van Nes, San Francisco Symphony Chorus, San Francisco Symphony, Herbert Blomstedt
Classica - Pubblicato da Decca Music Group Ltd. il 1 gen 1990
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra; Kossuth
Herbert Blomstedt, San Francisco Symphony
Classica - Pubblicato da Decca Music Group Ltd. il 1 giu 1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bruckner: Symphony No. 6 / Wagner: Siegfried Idyll
Herbert Blomstedt, San Francisco Symphony
Classica - Pubblicato da Decca Music Group Ltd. il 1 apr 1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Divertimenti KV 136-138 / Adagio und Fuge C-Moll
Staatskapelle Dresden, Herbert Blomstedt
Musica sinfonica - Pubblicato da Eterna il 1 gen 1978
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Hindemith: Symphonia Serena; Symphonie "Die Harmonie der Welt"
Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Herbert Blomstedt
Classica - Pubblicato da Decca Music Group Ltd. il 10 apr 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: The Symphonies
Herbert Blomstedt & Staatskapelle Dresden
Sinfonie - Pubblicato da Berlin Classics il 1 ott 2002
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bruckner: Symphony No. 4 "Romantic"
Herbert Blomstedt, San Francisco Symphony
Classica - Pubblicato da Decca Music Group Ltd. il 1 gen 1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Strauss, R.: Eine Alpensinfonie; Don Juan
San Francisco Symphony, Herbert Blomstedt
Classica - Pubblicato da Decca Music Group Ltd. il 1 gen 1990
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bruckner: Symphony No.9 / Adagio from String Quintet in F
Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Herbert Blomstedt
Classica - Pubblicato da Decca Music Group Ltd. il 1 gen 1999
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Flötenkonzert No. 1 / Oboenkonzert / Andante für Flöte
Staatskapelle Dresden, Johannes Walter, Kurt Mahn, Herbert Blomstedt
Classica - Pubblicato da Eterna il 1 gen 1975
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Brahms: Symphony No.3 / Haydn Variations etc
Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Herbert Blomstedt
Classica - Pubblicato da Decca Music Group Ltd. il 1 gen 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Strauss: Till Eulenspiegels Lustige Streiche
Herbert Blomstedt, Staatskapelle Dresden
Classica - Pubblicato da Denon il 1 gen 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Schubert: Symphonies Nos. 5 & 8/Rosamunde Overture
San Francisco Symphony, Herbert Blomstedt
Classica - Pubblicato da Decca Music Group Ltd. il 1 gen 1992
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Schubert: Die Liebe liebt das Wandern
Robert Stadlober, Symphonieorchester Des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Udo Wachtveitl, Herbert Blomstedt
Spoken Word - Pubblicato da BR-Klassik il 8 gen 2021
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
MOZART, W.A.: Flute Concertos Nos. 1 and 2 / Andante, K. 315 (Walter, Dresden Staatskapelle, Blomstedt)
Johannes Walter, Staatskapelle Dresden, Herbert Blomstedt
Classica - Pubblicato da Eterna il 1 gen 1975
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Schubert: Symphony No.9; Overture in C
San Francisco Symphony, Herbert Blomstedt
Classica - Pubblicato da Decca Music Group Ltd. il 1 gen 1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Dvořák: Sinfonie No. 8
Staatskapelle Dresden, Herbert Blomstedt
Musica sinfonica - Pubblicato da Eterna il 1 gen 1976
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo