Leif Segerstam
Leif Selim Segerstam was a Finnish music composer, conductor, violinist, violist, and pianist. He is especially best known for writing over 300 symphonies, along with other works. He held many important positions in Finnish music industry both in Finland and around the world.
From 1963 until his death in 2024, Segerstam conducted a variety of orchestras in Finland, Europe, North America, and Australia and New Zealand. He was conductor at Finnish National Opera, Royal Swedish Opera, and Deutsche Oper Berlin, and was a chief conductor of ORF Symphony Orchestra, Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, Danish National Radio Symphony, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, and Turku Philharmonic Orchestra. He is widely known through his recordings, including complete symphonies of Blomdahl, Brahms, Mahler, Nielsen, and Sibelius, as well as many works by contemporary composers. He is remembered for his contributions to Finnish music scene, and his vibrant personality.
He taught as a professor of orchestra conducting at Sibelius Academy in Helsinki.
Early life
Leif Segerstam was born on 2 March 1944 in Vaasa,to Selim Segerstam and Viola Maria Kronqvist, into a musical Swedish-speaking family. Selim made several song books as a living. Then, Segerstams moved to Helsinki in 1947. During Leif's time at school, he played violin and viola with Helsinki Youth Orchestra.
Career
Segerstam's debut concert as a violinist was in 1962, and his conducting debut was in 1963, with Rossini's The Barber of Seville, in Tampere. Following the premiere, Segerstam was hired to conduct the Finnish National Opera, and a year later he conducted the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. He conducted contemporary works such as Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms and Shostakovich's First Symphony.Segerstam studied at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, piano with Jaakko Somero, violin with Leena Siukonen-Penttilä, composition with Einar Englund and Joonas Kokkonen, and conducting with Jussi Jalas. He received diplomas in violin and conducting in 1963. He studied further at the Juilliard School in New York City, violin with Louis Persinger, composition with Hall Overton and Vincent Persichetti, and conducting with Jean Morel, and received his postgraduate diploma in 1965.
Segerstam took part, as second conductor, in a 1968 tour of the Helsinki Philharmonic to the United States. He was chief conductor and music director of the Royal Swedish Opera from 1970 to 1972, and music director of the Finnish National Opera in 1973 and 1974. He began working with Deutsche Oper Berlin in the early 1970s. He conducted as a guest at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, La Scala in Milan and the Royal Opera House in London, with a repertoire including Verdi's Aida and Don Carlo, R. Strauss' Salome and Elektra and Wagner's Tannhäuser and Der fliegende Holländer.
Segerstam served as chief conductor of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra from 1995 to 2007, and held the title of Chief Conductor Emeritus with the orchestra. At the same time, he was chief conductor of the Royal Swedish Opera again and of the Savonlinna Opera Festival in Finland until 2000.
File:KOCIS London Korea Classic 01.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|Segerstam with the Philharmonia at the 2012 Summer Olympics, 31 July 2012
He held positions with numerous other orchestras, including the ORF Symphony Orchestra, the Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, the Danish National Radio Symphony, and the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra. He guest-conducted many orchestras in Europe, the Americas and in Australia,
including the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Toronto Symphony, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Symphony Orchestra of the State of São Paulo.
From autumn 1997 to spring 2013, he was professor of orchestra conducting at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. His students include Rune Bergmann, Susanna Mälkki, Mikk Murdvee, Sasha Mäkilä and Markku Laakso.
In 2004 he made a cameo appearance in the Finnish film Pelicanman.
On 22 December 2015, while conducting the fourth and final movement of Rimsky-Korsakov's, Scheherazade, "Festival at Baghdad. The Sea. The Ship Breaks against a Cliff Surmounted by a Bronze Horseman", around the , Segerstam gave his own alternative performance of the piece, and cried as if he were a pirate, to emulate the shipwreck moment in the symphonic poem's storyline.
In 2024, he was hospitalized after a "brief bout of pneumonia", dying after complications related to the disease at the hospital on 9 October 2024.
Compositions
As a composer, Segerstam is especially known for his many symphonies, which numbered 371 by March 2024.Most of his symphonies last for about 20 minutes, are formed of a single movement and can be performed without a conductor. His 37th symphony, for example, at its premiere featured Segerstam at the piano, leading the orchestra "in a relatively free form". This is partially inspired by Sibelius' Seventh symphony. More than a hundred of Segerstam's symphonies have been performed.
Many of his compositions are influenced by nature, and he was often praised for his contributions to Nordic music. He developed a personal approach to aleatory composition through a style called "free pulsation" in which musical events interact flexibly in time, with his composition method persistent throughout his œuvre. His Fifth String Quartet, the "Lemming Quartet", ushered in his new chapter of post-expressionistic writing of the 1960s. This composition approach proved to be a quick way of writing large blocks of sound and permitted an exceptionally prolific output. Instead of constituting individual works, his music is more like a musical stream of consciousness. It also means that there are numerous scorings of the same piece. This method was first used in the "Lemming Quartet".
Among Segerstam's juvenilia are four string quartets from 1962–1966, and the post-impressionist ballet Pandora from 1967. The quartets are usually labeled as from his "Post-Expressionist" period. He composed 30 string quartets and numerous concertos, for violin, viola, cello and piano.
In 2015 Segerstam began work on an opera, Völvan, with a libretto by Elisabeth Wärnfeldt.
Personal life
Segerstam was married to the violinist, concertmaster of the Finnish RSO; they had two children.After they divorced, he married the Helsinki Philharmonic harpist Minnaleena Jankko in 2002; they had three children. In 2009 it was announced that their marriage would end.
In a 2024 interview, Segerstam mentioned being autistic.
Segerstam died from pneumonia at a Helsinki hospital, on 9 October 2024, at the age of 80.
Awards
- 1962, Segerstam won the International Maj Lind Piano Competition.
- 1999, he was awarded the Nordic Council Music Prize for his work as a "tireless champion of Scandinavian Music".
- 2003, he received Svenska Kulturfonden's Prize for Music.
- 2004, he was awarded the annual State Prize for Music in Finland.
- 2005, he was awarded the Sibelius Medal.
- 2014, the President of Finland granted Segerstam the title of Professor
Honors
- Pro Finlandia medal of the Order of the Lion of Finland, ''6 December 1992''
Recordings
The following is a list of selected orchestral recordings conducted by Segerstam.
| Album | Label | Year | Orchestra – artists | OCLC |
| Brahms: Symphony No. 1 / Segerstam.: Symphony No. 288, "Letting the FLOW go on..." | Alba | 2016 | Turku Philharmonic Orchestra | |
| Brahms: Symphony No. 2 / Segerstam.: Symphony No. 289, "When a Cat Visited" | Alba | 2018 | Turku Philharmonic Orchestra | |
| Brahms: Symphony No. 3 / Segerstam.: Symphony No. 294, "Songs of a UNICORN heralding..." | Alba | 2019 | Turku Philharmonic Orchestra | |
| Brahms: Symphony No. 4 / Segerstam.: Symphony No. 295, "ulFSöDErBlom in Memoriam..." | Alba | 2019 | Turku Philharmonic Orchestra | |
| Aubert: Orchestral Works – Cinéma / Feuille d'Images / Offrande / Dryade | SWR Classic Archive | 1994 | Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz | |
| Beethoven: König Stephan / Leonore Prohaska | Naxos | 2020 | Turku Philharmonic Orchestra The Key Ensemble, Chorus Cathedralis Aboensis | |
| Beethoven: Die Ruinen von Athen | Naxos | 2020 | Turku Philharmonic Orchestra Chorus Cathedralis Aboensis | |
| Borup-Jørgensen: Sommasvit / Nordisk Sommerpastorale | Dacapo | 1995 | Danish National Symphony Orchestra | |
| Langgaard: Symphony No. 1 / From the Deep | Chandos | 1994 | Danish National Symphony Orchestra and Choir | |
| Mahler: Symphonies Nos. 7 and 9 | Chandos | 1992 | Danish National Symphony Orchestra | |
| Mahler: Symphony No. 3 | Chandos | 1991 | Danish National Symphony Orchestra and Choir Anne Gjevang, Copenhagen Boys' Choir | |
| Mahler: Symphony No. 4 | Alba | 2020 | Turku Philharmonic Orchestra | |
| Mahler: Symphony No. 10 and 8 |8] | Chandos | 1994 | Danish National Symphony Orchestra and Choir | |
| Nørgård: Symphonies Nos. 4 and 5 | Chandos | 1997 | Danish National Symphony Orchestra | |
| Nørgård: Symphony No. 2 / Sinfonia Austera | Chandos | 1996 | Danish National Symphony Orchestra | |
| Nørgård: Symphony No. 3 / Concerto in due tempi | Chandos | 1996 | Danish National Symphony Orchestra and Choir | |
| Pettersson: Symphonies Nos. 3 and 15 | BIS | 1994 | Norrköping Symphony Orchestra | |
| Pettersson: Symphonies Nos. 7 and 11 | BIS | 1993 | Norrköping Symphony Orchestra | |
| Pettersson: Symphonies Nos. 8 and 10 | BIS | 1998 | Norrköping Symphony Orchestra | |
| Rautavaara: Before the Icons / A Tapestry of Life | Ondine | 2010 | Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra | |
| Rautavaara: Garden of Spaces / Clarinet Concerto / Cantus arcticus | Ondine | 2005 | Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra Richard Stoltzman | |
| Rautavaara: Harp Concerto / Symphony No. 8 | Ondine | 2001 | Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra Marielle Nordmann | |
| Rautavaara: Manhattan Trilogy / Symphony No. 3 | Ondine | 2008 | Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra | |
| Rautavaara: On the Last Frontier / Flute Concerto / Anadyomene | Ondine | 1999 | Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra Patrick Gallois | |
| Rautavaara: Violin Concerto / Isle of Bliss / Angels and Visitations | Ondine | 1997 | Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra Elmar Oliveira | |
| Rautavaara: Symphony No. 7 / Annunciations | Ondine | 1996 | Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra | |
| Romantic Trombone Concertos | BIS | 1988 | Bamberger Symphoniker Christian Lindberg | |
| Ruders, P.: Saaledes saae Johannes / Gong / Tundra / Symphony No. 1 | Chandos | 1993 | Danish National Symphony Orchestra | |
| Schmitt, F.: Orchestral Works – Danse d'Abisag / Habeyssée / Rêves / Symphony No. 2 | SWR Classic Archive | 2007 | Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz | |
| Scriabin: Symphony No. 2 / Reverie / Le Poeme de l'extase | BIS | 1992 | Royal [Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra] | |
| Scriabin: Piano Concerto / Symphony No. 3 "Le divin poeme" | BIS | 1990 | Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra | |
| Scriabin: Symphony No. 1 / Prometheus | BIS | 1991 | Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra | |
| Sibelius: Symphony No. 1 / In memoriam | Chandos | 1992 | Danish National Symphony Orchestra | |
| Sibelius.: Symphony No. 2 / Finlandia | Chandos | 1992 | Danish National Symphony Orchestra | |
| Sibelius: Symphonies Nos. 5 and 7 / Valse triste | Chandos | 1992 | Danish National Symphony Orchestra | |
| Sibelius: Symphony No. 3 / Scenes with cranes / Tapiola | Chandos | 1992 | Danish National Symphony Orchestra | |
| Sibelius: Symphony No. 4 / The Tempest Suite No. 1 | Chandos | 1991 | Danish National Symphony Orchestra | |
| Sibelius: Symphony No. 6 / Pohjola's Daughter / En saga | Chandos | 1991 | Danish National Symphony Orchestra | |
| Wagner: Tristan und Isolde | Naxos | 2005 | Royal Swedish Opera Orchestra and Male Chorus |