Herbert Blomstedt, low-key, long-performing maestro, dies at 99
The Boston Globe · Vivien Schweitzer ·
Mr. Blomstedt held a series of eminent positions over his extraordinarily long career, including leading for a decade each the Staatskapelle Dresden in Germany and the San Francisco Symphony.
Herbert Blomstedt, a self-effacing, spiritually minded, often underrated conductor who appeared with the world’s finest orchestras until virtually the end of his long life, died on Wednesday at his home in Gothenburg, Sweden. He was 99.
The death was announced in a statement by his management company, KünstlerSekretariat am Gasteig. He last appeared in concert in May, when he led the San Francisco Symphony in Gustav Mahler’s Ninth Symphony.
Mr. Blomstedt held a series of eminent positions over his extraordinarily long career. He led the Staatskapelle Dresden in Germany from 1975 to 1985, the San Francisco Symphony from 1985 to 1995, and another venerable German orchestra, the Gewandhaus of Leipzig, from 1998 to 2005.
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