Herbert Blomstedt: Conductors are good musicians, not great artists
OrchestrasThe veteran maestro, 96 and going strong, shares some formative experiences in a rare German interview:
Blomstedt: I was lucky enough to live in Gothenburg when I was in high school. It was during the war and Gothenburg had one of the leading orchestras in Northern Europe and a new concert hall that was inaugurated in 1936.
It’s one of the best halls in the whole world, the sound is excellent. One of the three concert masters was my violin teacher. I heard two symphony concerts every week. I had bought my own season ticket for this. I remember it was 45 (Swedish) crowns for a whole year.
I was lucky enough to get my violin lessons from the concertmaster of this orchestra. The normal fee was ten crowns an hour, but I couldn’t pay that. But he made an exception and I got an hour for three crowns….
After that, of course, I heard very great conductors from time to time, for example Furtwängler every year in Gothenburg. I asked him for my first autograph there. I’m actually a shy person, but I couldn’t help myself. I then got his autograph, it was fantastic!
Q: So you wanted to be a conductor because you saw Mr. Furtwängler?
Blomstedt: Yes and no, I have to put that into perspective a bit. It was the orchestral music that fascinated me and not primarily the legend. The conductors were good musicians but not great artists.
But I still experienced it tremendously. The orchestra was my idol, I knew the name of every musician in the orchestra. I also listened to them twice a week. Those names are still with me today.
More here.
The conductors WERE great artists. Nuance!
Two gems:
— dirt-cheap subscriptions, so engagement between orchestra and community
— orchestra as hero, not conductor (or visiting soloist) as hero
Both are basic lessons performing arts Boards have long forgotten, resulting in the decline we see everywhere.
Albert, bravo! Erudite and simply stating the truth, but extraordinary that this truism continues to be ignored.
This is precisely why many orchestral players admire and respect Blomstedt so much. He was never in music for an ego trip. He’s a true artist.
You don’t even need German to see the obvious misquotation in the headline: in the interview he said of the concerts he attended at that time, “The conductors were good musicians but not great artists.”
His legacy is his humility, living his life as a steward of music, not himself. he is a conduit between the composer and the tip of his baton, which gives the orchestra musicians every nuance, inflection, emotion and sound he believed the composer wrote for eternity. God bless this wonderful human being.
In complete agreement with you, Jeffrey. Have you met him personally or attended his rehearsals, or just seen him perform live?
Mr. Biegel may well have played as a soloist with Blomstedt conducting.
You could of written the same about JEG if he hadn’t just punched somebody on the nose.
Wonder whether Herbert ever had outbursts backstage…
Gustavo, you’re an idiot….
Long(er) live Blomstedt, let’s hope! What an erudite and humble musician, always in service to the music and the orchestra.
Indeed, what a wonderful final comment –
Herr Blomstedt, ich danke Ihnen sehr für ihre Zeit und wünsche Ihnen alles Gute, vor allen Dingen Gesundheit. Bleiben Sie fit und dirigieren Sie weiter!
This is so true; though – even if phrased as in present tense. And some (a lot?) of the conductors today chose conducting because they weren’t excellent musicians on their instrument. And this is why it is also frustrating for musicians in the orchestra – especially those that had heard them play their instrument in school, or elsewhere. And it’s also why conductors get so nervous on the podium!
Conducting Reger without score https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJVOIhMvfIE
The title completely subverses what Blomsted say: conductors “were” not “are”, referring to the conductors he saw as youngster, not to conductors in general. The title implies that also Blomsted think if himself as a not great artist…
This title is basically a fake news
A lot of conductors are neither. Whereas a lot of them are ‘great’ self publicists. Admirable humbleness from Blomstedt though.
He says WERE,not ARE!!! He refers to his youth in Gothenburg.