At 98 (you read that right), Herbert Blomstedt is a maestro of seasoned grace. “Noble, charming, sober, modest,” his unusual official bio begins. “Such qualities may play a major role in human coexistence and are certainly appreciated. However, they are rather atypical for extraordinary personalities such as conductors. Whatever the general public’s notion of a conductor may be, Herbert Blomstedt is an exception, precisely because he possesses those very qualities which seemingly have so little to do with a conductor’s claim to power.” Audiences experiencing the musicianship of his golden years are blessed indeed (cancellations are not unheard of). As conductor laureate of the San Francisco Symphony, where he served as music director from 1985 to 1995, Blomstedt returns to the City by the Bay this spring with Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 9. Unlike the composer’s previous symphonies, which took shape around narrative or conceptual “programs” that he later withdrew, the Ninth is, on the face of it, “absolute music,” free of external references. Yet among devotees, there’s no question that the Master conceived it as his farewell to the world, to life, and to music itself, ebbing away into transcendent silence. —Matthew Gurewitsch