New York, New York, United States …. [Mark A. Kellner/ANN]
Maestro Herbert Blomstedt, one of the classical music world’s fixtures as a conductor of global renown, says that a work such as Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony or Nielsen’s “Inextinguishable” is the “text” from which he expounds a sermon in the world’s great concert halls.
Completing 10 years as the Kapellmeister, or music director, of the Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig, Germany, Blomstedt, 76, lives a life that rivals that of any jet-setter. At the beginning of February, he led the San Francisco Symphony, where he is conductor laureate; in New York last week, he was set to conduct the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam at the famed Carnegie Hall; by the end of the month, it will be back to San Francisco to lead the Gewandhaus. From his base in Lucerne, Switzerland, Blomstedt circles the globe conducting orchestras and fulfilling, in a sense, his earlier desire to be a missionary.
“I am a servant of the music,” he told ANN during an interview in New York. “Music is sort of a parable; it tells a story. It starts from stillness and ends in stillness.”
Born to an Adventist pastor, and with a mother who was a pianist, Blomstedt and his brother would form a trio for Friday evening concerts in their home. He attended the Royal College of Music in Stockholm and the University of Uppsala in Sweden. His studies included mentoring by Igor Markevitch in Sweden as well as studies with Leonard Bernstein in America. His first “break” came as a guest conductor at the famed Tanglewood Music Festival in western Massachusetts, not far from his birthplace in Springfield.
Most recently, Blomstedt received the “Order of Merit” from Dr. Johannes Rau, president of the Republic of Germany. Rau praised Blomstedt for his work in representing Germany on overseas tours and for enhancing the reputation of the Gewandhaus, which he took over in 1996.
Seven years after finishing college, at the age of 27, Blomstedt received his first call to a symphony orchestra, in Stockholm. That call was not without its struggles, since symphony orchestras often hold a general rehearsal on the Sabbath, or Saturday.
The first orchestra that expressed an interest in him balked at accommodating his Sabbatarian practice, with some deriding such beliefs as superstition. He held firm, and lost the opportunity.
Then, seven weeks later, another orchestra in Stockholm called, inviting him to conduct two “guest concerts.” The young orchestra leader “clicked” with the musicians and again, the call came. Just as predictably, the Sabbath issue arose, and Blomstedt again faced a decision.
When asked about his beliefs, he remained firm in his unwillingness to rehearse–which he calls the “work” of an orchestra–on the Sabbath. He expected a similar response, but was surprised: the Swedish musicians voted to rearrange their schedules, with working rehearsals Tuesday through Friday, and the “general rehearsal” on Sunday morning, even if this was usually “family time” in Sweden.
“This continued for seven years in Stockholm and we had a wonderful working relationship,” Blomstedt said.
“My life has been a constant miracle,” he explained, saying that he has never sought a single appointment or guest conductorship. “They have all come to me.”
Blomstedt has been the music director of the Oslo Philharmonic, Danish Radio Symphony, and the Swedish Radio Symphony. In 1975, the musicians of the Dresden Staatskapelle invited him to become their music director, and in his 10 years with the ensemble he led it throughout Europe and in its first visits to the United States. As a guest conductor, he has appeared with Berlin Philharmonic, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, New York Philharmonic, and the Philadelphia Orchestra.
His years in Dresden were followed by his appointment as music director of the San Francisco Symphony, where his 10-year tenure “led the orchestra to worldwide recognition,” as the symphony’s Web site states. Blomstedt’s recordings with the San Francisco Symphony on the London label received some of the music world’s most coveted awards, including France’s Grand Prix du Disque, Britain’s Gramophone Award, and two Grammys,” the orchestra says.
Yet even with such recognition, Blomstedt is remarkably unassuming. His serious manner, San Francisco Chronicle music critic Joshua Kosman told ANN, conveyed the sense of a “deeply good and reflective” musician, and “those [qualities] came through from the podium.”
That’s not to say that Blomstedt had an unfriendly relationship with his musicians: in a Feb. 7 review, Kosman wrote that the conductor and the San Franciscans displayed “a palpable feeling of intimacy that comes with long collaboration.”
Copyright © 2003 Adventist News Network.
