Oh no! Leif Segerstam has died.
This Finnish conductor of Falstaffian dimensions was a characterful interpreter of the works of Jean Sibelius, Carl Nielsen, Allan Pettersson, Einojuhani Rautavaara, and other composers perhaps further afield. He served, at various times, as artistic director/chief conductor of the Stockholm Royal Opera, the Helsinki Philharmonic, the Danish National Radio Symphony, and the Savonlinna Opera Festival.
He was also a violinist, a pianist, and a composer. If, by chance, he ever found himself with extra time on his hands, he would simply churn out a symphony. By the time of his death he had composed 371 of them. (That is not a typo.) He also wrote 30 string quartets, 13 violin concertos, 8 cello concertos, 4 viola concertos, and 4 piano concertos.
Although he could hardly be said ever to have been a model of fitness, I am shocked to see him go. He always seemed to be inextinguishable, the very embodiment of Joulupukki, the Finnish Santa Claus, which he so strongly resembled.
The name Leif is of Scandinavian origin and is associated with the Viking Age. What are the odds that this most vibrant and eccentric of Nordic conductors would die on Leif Erikson Day?
Segerstam was 80 years-old. The man was a beast. R.I.P.
Segerstam conducts Sibelius’ Symphony No. 5
Just try to forget this “Scheherazade,” with its highly unconventional, piratical conclusion
Cutting to the chase
Rautavaara’s “On the Last Frontier,” after Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym,” with Rautavaara in attendance
Jolly Segerstam conducts grim Pettersson
Segerstam… gives a TED Talk???!!!
Segerstam’s Symphony No. 253 (again, not a typo)