The monumental Symphony No. 9 by Anton Bruckner will be performed on Thursday, 13^th of November 2025, on the Elbphilharmonie stage in Hamburg, by the Elbphilharmonie Orchestra conducted by Herbert Blomstedt.

The Grand Hall of the Elbphilharmonie will host a moment that will very likely transcend the bounds of a simple concert experience. At 98 years old, maestro Herbert Blomstedt leads the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra in a performance of Bruckner's Ninth Symphony, thus concluding a cycle of Brucknerian performances with the Hamburg ensemble-a cycle that recently included performances of the Symphonies No. 6 and No. 7.

Speaking about Bruckner, Blomstedt remarks: "No one else has managed to fill music with so much meaning and continuous beauty." Admirers say the same about the Swedish conductor himself, whose interpretations-marked by deep modesty, an ego-free artistic personality, and an insatiable need to communicate through music-have filled the world's concert halls for more than 70 years.

For Blomstedt, Bruckner is a genius and the greatest symphonist after Beethoven. No other conductor is so closely bound to the music of Anton Bruckner as Herbert Blomstedt. This is reflected in the many recordings he has made throughout his career with various orchestras, including the complete cycle of all nine symphonies with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, recorded between 2005 and 2012.

Last year, on the 11^th of July 2024-his 97th birthday-Blomstedt conducted the Symphony No. 9 in St. Florian Basilica in Austria, the place where Bruckner is buried, beneath the very organ he once played. That concert, recorded with the Bamberg Symphony, was a double homage: both to Bruckner, in the year of the bicentennial of his birth, and to the nonagenarian maestro.

The Orchestra and the Historical Bond

The NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, to which Blomstedt returns regularly since his tenure as chief conductor, represents one of the maestro's longstanding artistic partnerships. Blomstedt served as the ensemble's music director between 1995 and 1998, a period during which he strengthened the orchestra's reputation in the Austro-German repertoire. Based in the impressive Elbphilharmonie-the architectural jewel of Hamburg inaugurated in 2017-the orchestra is renowned for its warm sonority and interpretative discipline, qualities essential for bringing Bruckner's vast sound architectures.

The Score: an Unfinished Testament

The Symphony No. 9 in D minor, dedicated to "the beloved God," remains one of the most enigmatic and profound works in the symphonic repertoire. Bruckner began working on it in 1887, immediately after completing his massive Eighth Symphony, and continued until the day of his death in 1896. "Now I dedicate to the Majesty of Majesties, to the good Lord, my final creation, and I hope He will grant me enough time to finish it," the composer is said to have remarked while working on the monumental score-one he ultimately did not live to complete. He died while still drafting the finale.

But even without these final pages, the symphony bears all the marks of an opus ultimum: a synthesis of everything that defines Bruckner's musical language. The tension-charged opening, characteristic of his symphonies, is here taken to its extreme through an exceptionally long build-up; nowhere else in his oeuvre does the music "stamp forward" with such wild energy as in the Scherzo; and nowhere else does one plunge so deeply into Bruckner's epic sound world as in the sublime Adagio, ending with reminiscences of earlier symphonies.

A Concert of Historical Importance

At the age of 98, Blomstedt continues to conduct the world's great orchestras with remarkable presence and artistic force. In September 2025, he conducted the same Symphony No. 9 in Copenhagen with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, in a performance described as "sublime and deeply moving." His tireless performance activity at such a venerable age is not merely a record but a testament to the transformational power of music. After having to cancel concerts last season for health reasons, Blomstedt returned in February 2025 to the San Francisco Symphony-the ensemble he led as music director from 1985 to 1995. Each of these returns is met with thunderous applause, the audience fully aware that they are witnessing performances that are akin to miracles.

After the 13^th of November concert, Blomstedt will conduct Bruckner's Ninth again in Hamburg on the 16^th of November 2025, demonstrating not only his extraordinary physical endurance, but also the artistic consistency that has always defined him.

Speaking about Bruckner, Blomstedt says: "All great music is difficult if you want to conduct it beautifully, honestly, and with respect for the composer. Bruckner also requires calm-something many do not possess. His vision is expansive… There are very long lines here, like the mountain ranges around St. Florian. Long lines, up and down, ending in dramatic mountain ravines. With a horizon that tells you: at the end of the world, something long and beautiful and magnificent awaits, something that will last forever."

This philosophy is reflected in his interpretative approach: Blomstedt studies scores "from scratch, as though he doesn't know them. That keeps them new. So every performance is like a new piece." At 97, the maestro confessed that "it takes more than 97 years to reach the depth of this piece," speaking of Brahms-but the same may be said of Bruckner. Remarkably, Blomstedt already has specific plans for what he will conduct on his 100th birthday, although the orchestra with which he will mark this historic moment has not yet been officially announced. This determination to continue-this "unflagging need for musical communication," as described in the Elbphilharmonie's concert program-makes each of his concerts not merely an artistic event, but a life lesson.

Born in the United States to Swedish parents and educated in Uppsala, New York, Darmstadt, and Basel, Herbert Blomstedt made his conducting debut in 1954 with the Stockholm Philharmonic. He later served as principal conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic, the radio orchestras of Sweden and Denmark, and the Staatskapelle Dresden. He then became music director of the San Francisco Symphony, principal conductor of the NDR Symphony Orchestra, and music director of the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig. His former orchestras in San Francisco, Leipzig, Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Dresden, as well as the Bamberg Symphony and the NHK Symphony Orchestra, have all named him laureate conductor. Since 2019, he has been an honorary member of the Vienna Philharmonic. Maestro Blomstedt holds several honorary doctorates, is an elected member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music, and has been awarded Germany's Grand Cross of Merit with Star. He remains an extraordinary mental and physical presence, radiating artistic energy.