Leif Segerstam
Leif Segerstam is primarily known as a conductor, generally ranked among the most prominent from Finland in the latter 20th and early 21st centuries. However, he is also a composer with a massive output, making the cataloging of his music difficult. For instance, by October of 2021, Segerstam had written 334 symphonies, 30 of them having been composed or completed in 2005 alone. Yet that seemingly enormous body of music is not quite what it seems, since he typically writes the same piece in different scorings using aleatoric methods involving less-complex and less-specific notation. Still, his output contains countless orchestral and choral works, concertos, songs, string quartets, and instrumental pieces. In 2020, Segerstam led the Turku Philharmonic in a recording of Mahler's Symphony No. 4 on the Alba label.
Segerstam was born in Vaasa, Finland, on March 2, 1944. He entered the Sibelius Academy of Music in Helsinki in his mid-teens, where he studied violin with Liisa Siikonen and conducting with Jussi Jalas. Segerstam was also an excellent pianist then and won first prize in the 1962 Maj Lind Piano Competition, held by the Sibelius Academy. The following year, he graduated with degrees in both violin and conducting and gave his first major concert as a violinist. By then, he had already written his earliest compositions, which included the brief 1960 orchestral work A Legend (Nils-Eric Fougstedt in Memoriam) and Three Songs for soprano and piano (1960-1961). Following Segerstam's graduation, he enrolled at the Juilliard School of Music, where he studied violin with Louis Persinger, conducting with Jean Morel, and composition with Vincent Persichetti and Hall Overton.
In 1965, Segerstam received his first important conducting appointment to the Finnish National Opera as director for the 1973-1974 season. Segerstam held two other conducting posts at opera houses in Scandinavia and Germany, at the Royal Opera in Stockholm from 1968 to 1972, and at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin for a single season (1972-1973). Segerstam turned out many compositions during these early conducting years, including several string quartets (the Fifth, subtitled "Lemming," was a stylistically pivotal work in his use of aleatory methods) and the song collection Tre plus eller fyra NNNUUUU-R, for mezzo-soprano and piano, on texts by Gunnar Björling.
Segerstam successively took three conducting posts with second-tier European orchestras in the period from 1977 to 1985 (the Austrian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the Rheinland-Pfalz State Philharmonic Orchestra). He was appointed chief conductor of the Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra in 1989. For the labels BIS, Ondine, and Finlandia, he turned out performances of his symphonies No. 9, No. 11, No. 13, among many others, and violin concertos, Concerto Serioso and A Last Melodioso, with his then-wife Hannele Segerstam as soloist. Upon his departure from the Danish National Radio Symphony in 1995, he accepted the position of chief conductor for the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and returned to Stockholm's Royal Opera, once more as music director. Segerstam remained with the Royal Opera until 2000 and stepped down from his post with the Helsinki Philharmonic in 2007, taking the title of chief conductor emeritus. At the Royal Opera House, Segerstam has conducted a wide range of works. In 2002, for example, he led performances of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, Prokofiev's The Fiery Angel, and Janácek's The Makropulos Affair. He has continued to conduct and compose into the 2020s, penning no fewer than five symphonies in 2021. Among the orchestras he has guest conducted are the Chicago Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Turku Philharmonic. Segerstam led the latter group in a recording of Mahler's Symphony No. 4 on the Alba label in 2020.
© Robert Cummings & Keith Finke /TiVo
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Sibelius: Complete Symphonies
Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Polytech Male Choir, Pekka Kuusisto, Leif Segerstam
Klassik - Erschienen bei Ondine am 06.02.2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
RAUTAVAARA, E: Symphonies Nos. 1-8 (Franck, Pommer, Segerstam)
Belgium National Orchestra, Rundfunk Sinfonie Orchester Leipzig, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Mikko Franck, Max Pommer, Leif Segerstam
Klassik - Erschienen bei Ondine am 24.02.2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
RAUTAVAARA, E.: Garden of Spaces / Clarinet Concerto / Cantus arcticus (Stoltzman, Helsinki Philharmonic, Segerstam)
Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Richard Stoltzman, Leif Segerstam
Klassik - Erschienen bei Ondine am 01.01.2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
SIBELIUS, J.: Tempest Suites Nos. 1 and 2 / The Oceanides / Night Ride and Sunrise (Helsinki Philharmonic, Segerstam)
Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Leif Segerstam
Klassik - Erschienen bei Ondine am 01.01.1998
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
SIBELIUS, J.: Lemminkainen Suite / Tapiola (Helsinki Philharmonic, Segerstam)
Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Leif Segerstam
Klassik - Erschienen bei Ondine am 01.01.1996
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Sibelius: Orchestral Songs
Soile Isokoski, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Leif Segerstam
Vokalmusik (weltlich und geistlich) - Erschienen bei Ondine am 01.01.2006
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
SIBELIUS, J.: Kullervo (Helsinki Philharmonic, Segerstam)
Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Soile Isokoski, Leif Segerstam, Tommi Hakala, Ylioppilaskunnan Laulajat
Klassik - Erschienen bei Ondine am 13.05.2008
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Einojuhani Rautavaara: Before the Icons - A Tapestry of Life
Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Leif Segerstam
Symphonieorchester - Erschienen bei Ondine am 27.04.2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Sibelius : Scaramouche, Op. 71 (Complete Ballet)
Turku Philharmonic Orchestra, Bendik Goldstein, Leif Segerstam, Roi Ruottinen
Klassik - Erschienen bei Naxos am 30.10.2015
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
SIBELIUS, J.: Symphony No. 4 / Pohjola's Daughter / Finlandia (Polytech Male Choir, Helsinki Philharmonic, Segerstam)
Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Polytech Male Choir, Leif Segerstam
Klassik - Erschienen bei Ondine am 01.01.2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
SIBELIUS, J.: Violin Concerto in D minor / Karelia Suite / Belshazzar's Feast Suite (Kuusisto, Helsinki Philharmonic, Segerstam)
Pekka Kuusisto, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Leif Segerstam
Klassik - Erschienen bei Ondine am 01.01.1996
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Sibelius : Belshazzar's Feast & Other Orchestral Pieces
Turun Filharmoninen Orkesteri, Pia Pajala, Leif Segerstam
Klassik - Erschienen bei Naxos am 03.07.2015
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
ROUSE, C.: Gerettete Alberich (Der) / Rapture / Violin Concerto (Lin, Glennie, Helsinki Philharmonic, Segerstam)
Evelyn Glennie, Cho-Liang Lin, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Leif Segerstam
Klassik - Erschienen bei Ondine am 23.03.2004
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Sibelius: Swanwhite, JS 189, The Lizard, Op. 8, The Lonely Ski Trail, JS 77b & The Countess's Portrait, JS 88
Turun Filharmoninen Orkesteri, Riho Eklundh, Leif Segerstam
Klassik - Erschienen bei Naxos am 25.09.2015
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Sibelius: Symphonies Nos. 3, Op. 52 & 5, Op. 82
Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Leif Segerstam
Klassik - Erschienen bei Ondine am 01.11.2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: The Creatures of Prometheus, Op. 43
Turku Philharmonic Orchestra, Leif Segerstam
Klassik - Erschienen bei Naxos am 13.09.2019
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Toivo Kuula: South Ostrobothnian Suites 1 & 2, Festive March, Op. 13 and Prelude & Fugue, Op. 10
Turku Philharmonic Orchestra, Leif Segerstam
Klassik - Erschienen bei Ondine am 11.09.2015
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
RAUTAVAARA: Symphony No. 7 / Annunciations
Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Kari Jussila, Leif Segerstam
Klassik - Erschienen bei Ondine am 01.01.1996
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Sibelius : Kuolema, JS 113 & King Christian II, Op. 27
Turku Philharmonic Orchestra, Leif Segerstam, Waltteri Torikka, Pia Pajala
Klassik - Erschienen bei Naxos am 02.06.2015
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Orchestral Music (Finnish) - KLAMI, U. / PALMGREN, S. / KAJANUS, R. / KUULA, T. / SIBELIUS, J. (Pictures from Finland) (Segerstam)
Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Leif Segerstam
Klassik - Erschienen bei Ondine am 01.01.2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Apotheosis: The Best of Einojuhani Rautavaara
Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Richard Stoltzman, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Leif Segerstam, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Mikko Franck
Klassik - Erschienen bei Ondine am 04.10.2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo