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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Beethoven: Symphony No. 4 (Remastered)
Herbert Blomstedt, Staatskapelle Dresden
Symphonic Music - Released by Eterna on Jan 1, 1980
24-Bit 88.2 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Symphony No. 6
Staatskapelle Dresden, Herbert Blomstedt
Classical - Released by Brilliant Classics on Jan 1, 1978
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Schubert: Symphony No. 9
Staatskapelle Dresden, Herbert Blomstedt
Classical - Released by Brilliant Classics on Feb 15, 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
REGER, M.: Violin Concerto (Scherzer, Dresden Staatskapelle, Blomstedt)
Manfred Scherzer, Herbert Blomstedt, Staatskapelle Dresden
Classical - Released by Eterna on Feb 19, 1984
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Pettersson: Violin Concerto No. 2 / 6 Songs From Barefoot Songs
Ida Haendel, Margareta Dahlstrom, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Stockholms Studensångare, Herbert Blomstedt, Eskil Hemberg
Classical - Released by Caprice on Jan 1, 1980
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Symphony No. 9
Staatskapelle Dresden, Herbert Blomstedt
Classical - Released by Brilliant Classics on Sep 14, 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Symphony No. 5
Staatskapelle Dresden, Herbert Blomstedt
Classical - Released by Brilliant Classics on Jan 1, 1978
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Symphony No. 3
Staatskapelle Dresden, Herbert Blomstedt
Classical - Released by Brilliant Classics on Jan 1, 1977
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Quintessence Beethoven: Complete Symphonies
Staatskapelle Dresden, Herbert Blomstedt
Classical - Released by Brilliant Classics on Oct 1, 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Konzertarien für Sopran und Orchester (3) (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Anonymous - Pietro Metastasio)
Staatskapelle Dresden, Herbert Blomstedt
Vocal Music (Secular and Sacred) - Released by Eterna on Oct 25, 1984
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Grieg: Peer Gynt
Herbert Blomstedt, Staatskapelle Dresden
Classical - Released by Warner Music Group - X5 Music Group on Mar 16, 2018
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Hindemith: Die Harmonie der Welt; Octet
Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Herbert Blomstedt, Members Of The Wiener Oktett
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on Jan 1, 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Koppel: Cello Concerto / Norholm: Violin Concerto
Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Herbert Blomstedt, Ole Schmidt
Classical - Released by BIS on Jan 31, 1992
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Grieg: Peer Gynt
Herbert Blomstedt, Staatskapelle Dresden
Classical - Released by Warner Music Group - X5 Music Group on Mar 16, 2018
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Grieg: Peer Gynt
Herbert Blomstedt, Staatskapelle Dresden
Classical - Released by Warner Music Group - X5 Music Group on Mar 16, 2018
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Lidholm: Poesis - Rosenberg: Symphony No. 2
Herbert Blomstedt, Stockholms filharmoniska orkestern
Classical - Released by Swedish Society on Dec 1, 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rosenberg: Louisville Concerto & Symphony No. 2
Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Hilding Rosenberg, Stig Westerberg, Herbert Blomstedt
Classical - Released by Swedish Society on Jan 1, 1988
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Brahms: Famous Pieces
Marek Janowski, Herbert Blomstedt, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Arabella Steinbacher
Symphonies - Released by PENTATONE on Dec 3, 2021
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
葛利格 皮爾金
Herbert Blomstedt, Staatskapelle Dresden
Classical - Released by Warner Music Group - X5 Music Group on Mar 16, 2018
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo