Blomstedt Conducts Bruckner

Herbert Blomstedt must be the least known and appreciated of living great conductors. As you can see he is not flashy but he invariably gets to the heart of the music he conducts and gets the utmost from his players. In this video from the BBC he conducts an excerpt from Bruckner's Ninth Symphony with the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra at last year's Proms in London. I have no doubt that these young players will remember learning Bruckner from Blomstedt with great admiration well into their old age.

Blomstedt was born in the United States of Swedish parents but was brought up mostly in Sweden. For advanced conducting studies he went to Juilliard, and to Tanglewood to work with Leonard Bernstein. Blomstedt went on to become at various times chief conductor of the Staatskapelle Dresden and the San Francisco Symphony. His repertoire has narrowed in recent years but he is particularly renowned for his Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, Sibelius, Nielsen and Mahler.

Check out my companion video this week in which Blomstedt talks about the music of Mahler.

Incidentally, Blomstedt was 83 when this Bruckner performance was recorded.

Paul E. Robinson