Herbert Blomstedt, a globally recognized Seventh-day Adventist conductor, died on November 4 at age 99 in his home in Gothenburg, Sweden, according to a statement from his management.
“Easy things do not interest me. I like difficult things. In that way I am a hopeless youngster,” Blomstedt said in an interview at age 93. This attitude continually motivated him to develop as a musician.
He was considered one of the most successful directors of philharmonic orchestras of his time and an unusual personality in classical music. Even past age 90, Blomstedt was sought after by the world's leading orchestras and performed as a guest conductor at many concerts. He conducted his last concert at age 98 on May 15 with the San Francisco Symphony in Mahler’s ninth symphony.
Blomstedt was born on July 11, 1927, in the United States, in the home of an Adventist pastor and his wife. When he was 2, the family moved back to their native Sweden.
There, he began his musical education at the Royal Conservatory in Stockholm and at Uppsala University. He later studied conducting at the Juilliard School of Music in New York, contemporary music in Darmstadt, Germany, and Renaissance and Baroque music at the Schola Cantorum in Basel, Switzerland.
“Music keeps me young”
Blomstedt displayed an impressive ability to analyze the works he conducted in fresh ways. He always opened the score of a piece as if he saw it for the first time and carefully analyzed it to discover the inner logic of the composer’s intentions. “If you think you're good and don't need to prepare, think you may take it easy, that is the beginning of the end,” he said in an interview in 2014.
“Music keeps me young. I have great curiosity, and, in that way, I am still like a child. I have learnt a little bit over the years but most of all I’ve learnt that I know far too little,” Blomstedt told Mark Pullinger in an interview in December 2020 when he was preparing for concerts with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Musicians on three continents have worked with Blomstedt. “Not one of our musicians would be on sick leave when Blomstedt was in town,” a member of the Oslo Philharmonic confided.
Rehearsing under Blomstedt’s guidance was like attending a seminar, according to members of orchestras he worked with. He was passionate about music, and it gave him great joy simply to listen to an orchestra. It was his job to make that sound as close to actual life as possible. He would pay attention to every little detail and would often hum a few bars to exemplify how he wanted the music to sound.
Blomstedt thought of orchestra members as specialists who worked toward a common goal. He was always looking for ways to improve the performance. The more difficult a task was, the better. “Easy things do not interest me. I like difficult things,” he said in an interview with Deutsche Welle.
His quest for perfection was always marked by the joy he felt when performing with an orchestra. That joy was very visible to the musicians, who saw in his face the almost childlike joy music gave him as he conducted. After concerts, Blomstedt would not go immediately to his stall but would stand at the stage exit to personally thank the musicians.
Blomstedt was considered an authority on the music of the Austrian composer Anton Bruckner. In 2023, Accentus Music released a collection of CDs with all of Bruckner’s nine symphonies recorded live with Blomstedt conducting the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig. The publisher wrote about the recordings: “Bruckner’s symphonies are strenuous alpine hikes, and Blomstedt is a mountain guide who not only has the next fork in the road in mind but knows every stone on the path before the group has even started.”
After Blomstedt’s performance of Bruckner’s ninth symphony with the Berliner Philharmoniker in December 2024, when the conductor was 97 years old, Monika Rittershaus wrote: “It is difficult to put the incredible energy of this artist into words.”
Blomstedt saw his extraordinary vitality in old age as a gift from God. “The gift of good health must never make us arrogant,” he maintained.
Blomstedt learned to focus on what had “eternal value” from his father. In classical music, he felt that he could offer the public something of eternal value.
Man of faith
Blomstedt was a committed Seventh-day Adventist. Throughout his career, he would never have rehearsals on Friday nights or Saturdays in observance of the biblical Sabbath. He would, however, conduct concerts, regarding this as an expression of his religion and a form of worship. “I am convinced that the music we play at a concert may open the way to an encounter with God for those who are sensitive to classical music,” he once said.
His Christian convictions have always been important to him, and every orchestra manager around the globe knew he was a Seventh-day Adventist and a man faithful to his convictions. The New York Philharmonic wrote, “His work as a conductor is inseparably linked to his religious and human ethos.”
Blomstedt thought it came with a certain responsibility to be a public figure and known for his religion. That combination required humility. He would cite Albert Schweitzer, saying, “Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.” Blomstedt wanted to be known not for his words, but for the life he lived. That life gained the respect and affection of musicians and audiences around the world.
In May, Kim Kaloyanides Kennedy, associate concertmaster of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, wrote on her Facebook page after a week with Blomstedt preparing for and performing Mahler’s 9th Symphony, “Mahler 9 feels to me like music that walks directly through suffering without collapsing into despair. It reaches instead toward surrender, transcendence, peace, and rest in the presence of God. And Maestro Blomstedt, who is Seventh-day Adventist, seemed to embody that spirit so naturally.”
In 2019, Blomstedt wrote a review of Reinder Bruinsma’s book I Have a Future: Christ’s resurrection and mine. In the review, he wrote, “I must confess that I think of my own end very rarely—I am simply too busy to have time for it.”
