Tomorrow is the 90th birthday of conductor Michael Gielen. Though Gielen retired from the podium several years ago, primarily due to failing eyesight, conductor Herbert Blomstedt (born July 11, 1927), a Seventh-day Adventist who doesn’t eat meat, smoke or drink caffeine, is still going strong, with a full season of concerts ahead. On a related note, the French conductor Serge Baudo turned 90 on July 16.
With these milestone birthdays in mind, I thought it might be interesting tomorrow morning on WPRB to put together a playlist of recordings by these artists and others of their profession who have entered the 90 Year-Old Club.
We’ll sample Gielen’s recordings of Franz Schreker and Gustav Mahler, Blomstedt’s Roger Sessions, and Baudo’s Messiaen. We’ll also hear recordings by notable nonagenarians who passed within the last year or so, including Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, Georges Prêtre, Louis Fremaux, and Sir Neville Marriner. Then we’ll fill in around the edges with late-career performances by Sir Adrian Boult (who lived to be 93) and Leopold Stokowski (95).
90 is the new 70, tomorrow morning from 6 to 11 EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com. Suddenly I feel like a spring chicken again, on Classic Ross Amico.
PHOTOS (clockwise from left): Michael Gielen, Serge Baudo, and champion arm-wrestler Herbert Blomstedt

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