“Herbert Blomstedt put in many decades as a music director, with all the extra work that entailed,” writes Joshua Kosman in Thursday’s (2/6) San Francisco Chronicle. “Blomstedt, at 92, seems so completely content and at ease…. ‘I just have to make sure we play as well as possible…. I love it,’ he [said] in the middle of one his visits … to guest-conduct the orchestra—in this case a two-week stint that began last week … an annual tradition since 1995, when he ceded the baton to Michael Tilson Thomas after 10 years as music director…. Since 2005, when he gave up his last music directorship of Leipzig’s renowned Gewandhaus Orchestra, Blomstedt has spent his time … as guest conductor with the finest American and European orchestras…. In San Francisco, he has the title conductor laureate…. Just in the past year, he said, he has [added] to his repertoire … Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 2, ‘Lobgesang,’ and Haydn’s ‘Lord Nelson’ Mass…. The day we spoke, he had been at his desk at 6 a.m., going over a Brahms symphony he already knew pretty well…. ‘We are learning all the time. A day we have not learned anything is a waste.’ ”
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