An exceptional artist and human beingRemembering Herbert Blomstedt
The musicians of the Berliner Philharmoniker mourn the death of Herbert Blomstedt on 4 November at the age of 99. The Swedish conductor was acclaimed as one of the great interpreters of Bruckner, but he also impressed audiences well into old age with his warm, positive presence.
For Eva-Maria Tomasi, violinist and orchestra board member of the Berliner Philharmoniker, Herbert Blomstedt was an exceptional figure, both artistically and personally: “Herbert Blomstedt impressed us as a musical thinker who constantly searched for honesty and truth in the score. Self-promotion was utterly foreign to him and audiences loved him, which was due in no small part to his positive presence, which inspired us as an orchestra too. We were also motivated by the fact that he made each of us feel seen and valued in rehearsals and concerts. Even at his last concerts with us in April this year, he radiated mental energy despite many hours of rehearsing. We are deeply saddened to have lost Herbert Blomstedt, and at the same time endlessly grateful for the wonderful, fulfilling work we did with him.”
Herbert Blomstedt was born in the USA in 1927 to Swedish parents. He came to conducting almost by chance: while studying the violin at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, he was a member of the university choir and was once given the chance to conduct two movements of Brahms’s Requiem. That experience set the course for his career. He trained as a conductor at the Juilliard School of Music in New York, in Darmstadt (contemporary music) and in Basel (Renaissance and Baroque music). He also received important guidance as an assistant to Igor Markevitch and Leonard Bernstein.
Herbert Blomstedt made his debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker in December 1976, alongside the then 20-year-old pianist Krystian Zimerman. Press attention focused chiefly on the winner of the 1975 Chopin Competition, but the conductor, too, was praised for his “enthusiasm and powers of persuasion”. Over the course of his career, Herbert Blomstedt was chief conductor of the Staatskapelle Dresden, the San Francisco Symphony and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, among others; from 2008 onwards he was invited back regularly by the Berliner Philharmoniker. The programmes centred on works by Anton Bruckner – Herbert Blomstedt was regarded as one of his foremost interpreters – as well as by Johannes Brahms and Ludwig van Beethoven. He was also a passionate advocate for Scandinavian composers such as Carl Nielsen and Franz Berwald.
Herbert Blomstedt was last a guest of the Berliner Philharmoniker in April 2026, conducting Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony in three unforgettable concerts – with undiminished creative power. Asked in an interview for the Digital Concert Hall where he drew this energy from, he replied: “I am in love with music. As soon as I hear the sound of the orchestra, I am transformed – there is no body, no age, only the music and the joy of it.”