The 95-year-old has been associated with the Dresden Staatskapelle and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra for decades
“Professor Blomstedt is a very special and unique artistic personality who has made a great contribution to cultural Germany. He is rightly loved by the public, revered by the musicians and praised by the experts,” emphasized Kretschmer, according to a statement previously distributed. Together with the Gewandhaus Orchestra, he significantly expanded and shaped Leipzig’s rank as an internationally important music city during his tenure as Gewandhaus Kapellmeister and beyond.
Kretschmer described Blomstedt as a “bridge builder in the best sense of the word”. He stands for the connecting bridging function of culture in Europe and the whole world. Blomstedt, who was born in the USA to Swedish parents in 1927, was chief conductor of the Staatskapelle Dresden from 1975 to 1985 before the fall of the Berlin Wall and then served as conductor of the Gewandhaus from 1998 to 2005. During his time in Dresden, he made an internationally acclaimed complete recording of Ludwig van Beethoven’s nine symphonies with the Staatskapelle on the GDR classical music label “Eterna”, which is still a reference today and was reissued a few years ago. In Saxony, the pastor’s son is deeply admired by classical music fans. In July of this year, Blomstedt was to conduct the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig’s Rosental at this year’s two symphony concerts in the open-air series “Classic Air Life”. However, a femoral neck fracture, which he sustained as a result of a fall a few weeks earlier, prevented this appearance.
In 2003, Blomstedt had already received the Grand Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. Now he also has the award with a star.