The wisdom of age?

The other day, I read a very complimentary review of a Beethoven concert conducted by Herbert Blomstedt (b.1927), a Swedish-born conductor best known in the United States for his recordings with the San Francisco Symphony in the late 1980s and early 1990s.  He was already in his sixties when, it seems, he was "discovered," and, although he is hardly a household name even today, his recordings of the six Nielsen symphonies with the SFO are probably as good as any in the catalogue.  Blomstedt is now 90, and, to judge by the review I read, still at the top of his game.  I own his recordings of the Nielsen symphonies (on two "Decca Double" issues), and they sound wonderful.  They are the only Blomstedt recordings I own.  Another conductor who was a "late bloomer" in the publicity stakes was Gunter Wand (1912-2002).  His digital recordings of the Bruckner symphonies, started when he was around 70, received wide praise, and he was touted as the premier Brucknerian of his time.  I don't know whether he is or not, but I felt guilty about not owning any of his recordings, so I picked up a used copy of a live concert comprising the Beethoven Fourth Symphony and the Mozart "Posthorn" Serenade, conducted by Wand when he was 89 [see image above].  I'm happy to have it.  The performances are propulsive, and my only reservation is that the orchestral sound isn't as "warm" as some other recordings I have -- recordings almost all made under studio conditions.  His orchestra on that recording, the Hamburg-based NDR Symphony, might be not quite as polished as, say, the Berlin Philharmonic, but there's nothing sloppy or compromised about their playing.  Their Beethoven Fourth is as engaging and energetic as any I've heard, and my only reservation about the "Posthorn" is that I wished the posthorn itself could be a little bit more prominent in the aural mix.  I've always liked George Szell's Cleveland recording of that serenade, and there the posthorn has its say, so to speak, but on the whole, the present digital sound of Wand's recording is something I wouldn't want to be without.  Likewise, much as I enjoy Eugen Jochum's Concertgebouw recording of the Beethoven Fourth (from the 1960s), Wand's more present and open sound, live recording conditions notwithstanding, is very attractive.  Wand's Bruckner recordings from Cologne are now re-issued in a Sony budget box, for $22.00 for nine discs!  I'm tempted -- but with complete sets from Jochum (EMI), Karajan, and Haitink, do I, at age 73 myself, really need them?

Neither Wand nor Blomstedt, of course, were really "late bloomers,"  They were very fine conductors for a long time who just didn't have the good luck to be picked up and publicized by major labels when they were in their thirties or earlier, as Simon Rattle, Gustavo Dudamel, Bernard Haitink, and Lorin Maazel were.  Haitink is now pushing 90 himself, but he he has been in the public eye, and deservedly so, since 1960 or so.  Still, it would be hard to make the case that he is objectively a "better" conductor than Wand or Blomstedt.  The same holds for Christoph von Dohnanyi, born, like Haitink, in 1929, who was better-known earlier than Wand or Blomstedt, and whose Beethoven recordings are preferable, to my ears, than Haitink's -- maybe for reasons having more to do with Telarc 1980s sound than anything else.  Record magazines love to "rank" things -- conductors, recordings, equipment.  You've seen their top-ten and top-fifty lists.  I say, ignore them.  In this age of cheap used CDs with excellent sound, buy promiscuously and listen for yourself, and trust your ears  There's more good stuff out there than you know.