Herbert Blomstedt

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Herbert Blomstedt at a rehearsal with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra , 2015

Herbert Blomstedt ( pronunciation : [ ˌhæɹːbəʈ ˈblʊmːstɛt ], born July 11, 1927 in Springfield , USA ) is a Swedish conductor . He is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music .

Life

Herbert Blomstedt was born in the USA to Swedish parents. His father was an Adventist pastor . Blomstedt received his first musical training at the Royal Conservatory in Stockholm and at Uppsala University . He studied conducting at the Juilliard School of Music in New York City , contemporary music in Darmstadt, and renaissance and baroque music at the Schola Cantorum Basel , and he also worked with Igor Markevitch in Salzburg and Leonard Bernstein in Tanglewood .

In 1954 Herbert Blomstedt made his debut as a conductor with the Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and then worked as chief conductor of important Scandinavian orchestras, including in Norrköping . Until 1963 he directed the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra .

Herbert Blomstedt in the Leipzig Gewandhaus, 2015

From 1975 to 1985 he was chief conductor of the Staatskapelle Dresden and from 1985 to 1995 Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony . From 1996 to 1998 he was chief conductor of the NDR Symphony Orchestra , with which he also works regularly as a guest conductor. From 1998 to 2005 he led the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra as the successor to Kurt Masur .

Herbert Blomstedt works as a guest conductor with many important orchestras, including the Bamberg Symphony , the Berlin Philharmonic , the Boston Symphony Orchestra , the Chicago Symphony Orchestra , the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra , the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra , the Los Angeles Philharmonic , the Munich Philharmonic and not most recently the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra . Blomstedt made his first appearance with the Vienna Philharmonic in 2011.

Herbert Blomstedt, whose wife Traute Blomstedt died in February 2003, has four daughters and has lived in Lucerne since 1984 . He is a professed Seventh-day Adventist , does not drink alcohol and eats a vegetarian .

Awards

The NHK Symphony Orchestra (1986), the San Francisco Symphony (1995), the Gewandhaus Orchestra (2005), the Bamberg Symphony (2006), the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra Stockholm (2006), the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra Copenhagen (2006), the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden (2016) and the Vienna Philharmonic (2019) named him their honorary conductor. In 2003 he received the Great Federal Cross of Merit . He has also been awarded honorary doctorates by numerous universities, such as the University of Gothenburg . He has also received numerous other awards, such as the Anton Bruckner Prize of the City of Linz in 2001 , the Max Rudolf Prize for his work as a conductor and teacher in 2007, the Golden Badge of Honor of the Saxon State Orchestra Dresden in 2007, and Johann Walter in 2008 Plaque of the Saxon Music Council and in 2011 the Bach Medal of the City of Leipzig .

In 2016 Blomstedt received the Léonie Sonning Music Prize . That same year, he was from the Brahms Society Schleswig-Holstein Brahms Price 2017 awarded that he on 10 June 2017 under Brahms weeks in 2017 in Wesselburen received. The laudation was given by the journalist and biographer Julia Spinola. In 2017 Blomstedt was awarded the Leipzig Tourism Prize by Leipzig Tourismus und Marketing (LTM) GmbH.

Recordings

Blomstedt has recorded numerous works, most of them with the Staatskapelle Dresden, the San Francisco Symphony and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig. 130 different recordings exist with the Staatskapelle alone, including all of Beethoven and Schubert's symphonies and Beethoven's opera Leonore , the original version of Fidelio . He recorded the Sibelius symphonies, a number of orchestral works by Paul Hindemith and all of Carl Nielsen's symphonies , which are considered reference recordings, with the San Francisco Symphony. With the Gewandhausorchester from 1999 on, he recorded all of the symphonies by Anton Bruckner and Ludwig van Beethoven , but also the High Mass by the Swede Sven-David Sandström .

Blomstedt's recordings have been published by Decca , among others , especially those with the San Francisco Symphony. Recordings with the Staatskapelle Dresden have been released by Denon and Eterna (now Edel Classics ). Since 2005, recordings have mainly been released by Querstand and Accentus Music .

Selected recordings

Quote

“Being a conductor is a good job for getting old, because it's always a challenge and you need challenges as you get older.”

literature

Web links

Commons : Herbert Blomstedt  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Vienna Philharmonic make Herbert Blomstedt an honorary member. July 30, 2019, accessed July 30, 2019 .
  2. ^ A b Stuttgarter Zeitung, Stuttgart Germany: Conductor Herbert Blomstedt: "A conductor is only a listener". Retrieved February 7, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Blomstedt, Herbert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swedish-American conductor
DATE OF BIRTH July 11, 1927
PLACE OF BIRTH Springfield , Massachusetts