SEGERSTAM, LEIF

"Leif Segerstam has a fine feeling for the breadth and depth of Korngold's intricate orchestrations and the nervous, erotic tension of his personal form of expressionism." BBC Music Magazine on the Naxos recording of Korngold's Die Tote Stadt performed by the Royal Swedish Opera under Leif Segerstam.

Born in 1944, Leif Segerstam studied violin, piano, composition and conducting at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, followed by postgraduate studies at the Juilliard School in New York under Morel, Persinger, Overton and Petsichetti.

He began his conducting career in the opera houses of Helsinki, Stockholm and West Berlin, and early guest appearances took him to the Metropolitan Opera, New York and the major European opera houses including La Scala and Covent Garden.

He was chief conductor of the Austrian Radio Symphony Orchestra from 1975-82, and of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra from 1977 to 1987, with which he maintains close contact as principal guest conductor. From 1983-89 he served as general music director of the Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz (Germany) and is still their honorary guest conductor.

His operatic work has included appearances at the Wiener Staatsoper and the royal theatres of Copenhagen and Stockholm. From 1988 to 1995 Mr. Segerstam was chief conductor of the Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra. From the 1995/96 season he was appointed chief conductor and musical director at the Royal Opera in Stockholm and chief conductor of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2001 he was appointed Chief Conductor at the Finnish National Opera.

Leif Segerstam is also a prolific composer in his own right of over fifty symphonies, string quartets, piano and string concertos and a host of other works.

For Marco Polo, Leif Segerstam has recorded the works of the forgotten French romantics and impressionists Koechlin, Roger-Ducasse, Rabaud, Aubert, Schmitt and Caplet. His Da Capo/Marco Polo joint productions include recordings of works by Borup-Jorgensen (Naxos 8.224030), Gudmundsen-Holmgreen, Rasmussen and Sorensen (Naxos 8.224039).

Most notably, Leif Segerstam astonished the opera world with his release of the first digital recording of Korngold's luminous Die Tote Stadt on Naxos Opera Classics.

October 2001

Albums featuring this artist are available for download from ClassicsOnline.com
A TO Z OF OPERA	8.555037-38
AUBERT: Orchestral Works	8.223531
BEETHOVEN / MOZART / WAGNER / MUSSORGSKY: Opera Scenes	BIS-CD-373-74
BERG, A.: Wozzeck	8.660076-77
BEST OF OPERA, VOL. 4	8.554682
BLOMDAHL: Symphonies Nos. 1-3	BIS-CD-611
BORUP-JOSGENSEN: Sommasvit / Nordisk Sommerpastorale	8.224030
CHILL WITH DEBUSSY	8.556788
CINEMA CLASSICS 1999	8.551183
CLASSICAL CHILLOUT - The Essential Collection	8.570223-24
Classics at the Movies: Comedy 2	8.556812
CLASSICS FOR CHAMBER ORCHESTRA, Vol. 1	BIS-CD-180
DEBUSSY (THE VERY BEST OF)	8.552127-28
DEBUSSY-CAPLET: Children's Corner Suite	8.223751
DISCOVER OPERA	8.558196-97
DVORAK: Slavonic Dances, Op. 46 & 72	BIS-CD-425
GUDMUNDSEN-HOLMGREEN: Symphony-Antiphony / RASMUSSEN: Symphony in Time	DCCD 9010
KOECHLIN: Buisson Ardent (Le) / Sur Les Flots Lointains	8.223704
KOECHLIN: Heures Persanes (Les) , Op. 65	8.223504
KOECHLIN: Livre de la Jungle (Le)	8.223484
KORNGOLD: Tote Stadt (Die)	8.660060-61
LINDBERG, Christian: 10-Year Jubilee	BIS-CD-638
LUTOSLAWSKI: Cello Concerto / PENDERECKI: Cello Concerto No. 2	BIS-CD-937
MUSSORGSKY: Pictures at an Exhibition / St. John's Night on Bald Mountain	BIS-CD-325
NORDGREN / BERGMAN: Violin Concertos / SEGERSTAM: A Last Melodioso	BIS-CD-326
OD (Orphei Drangar) Highlights	BIS-CD-383
PETTERSSON: Symphonies 8 & 10	BIS-CD-880
PETTERSSON: Symphonies Nos. 7 and 11	BIS-CD-580
PETTERSSON: Symphony Nos. 3 & 15	BIS-CD-680
RABAUD: Orchestral Works	8.223503
RAUTAVAARA: Chamber Music	BIS-CD-66
REGER: Mozart Variations / Symphonic Prologue to a Tragedy	BIS-CD-771
REGER: Piano Concerto, Op. 114 / Suite im alten Stil	BIS-CD-711
REGER: Variations & Fugue on a Theme of Ludwig van Beethoven / 4 Bocklin Tone Pictures	BIS-CD-601
ROGER-DUCASSE: Au jardin de Marguerite / Suite francaise / Epithalame	8.223641
ROGER-DUCASSE: Marche francaise / Nocturne de printemps / Orphee	8.223501
ROGER-DUCASSE: Orchestral Works	8.550891
ROMANTIC TROMBONE CONCERTOS	BIS-CD-378
ROTT: Symphony in E major	BIS-CD-563
SCHMITT: Orchestral Works	8.223689
SCHNITTKE: Cello Concerto No. 1 / Klingende Buchstaben / 4 Hymns	BIS-CD-507
SCHNITTKE: Faust Cantata	BIS-CD-437
SCHNITTKE: Music featured in Volker Schöndoff´s film "Der Neute Tag"	BIS-CD-1507
SCHNITTKE: Symphony No. 1	BIS-CD-577
SCHNITTKE: Symphony No. 2, "St. Florian"	BIS-CD-667
SCRIABIN: Piano Concerto / Symphony No. 3, "Le divin poeme"	BIS-CD-475
SCRIABIN: Symphony No. 1 / Prometheus	BIS-CD-534
SCRIABIN: Symphony No. 2 / Reverie / Le Poeme de l' extase	BIS-CD-535
SEGERSTAM: Patria / SKIZZEN / DIVERTIMENTO	BIS-CD-84
SEGERSTAM: Six Songs of Experience / String Quartet	BIS-CD-39
SEGERSTAM: Symphony No. 11 / Symphony No. 14	BIS-CD-483
SEGERSTAM: Symphony No. 13 / Piano Concerto No. 3 / Moments of Peace III	BIS-CD-484
SEGERSTAM: Symphony No. 16 / Nocturne	BIS-CD-584
SEGERSTAM: Symphony No. 17, Streamings in the Soul	BIS-CD-684
SEGERSTAM: Thoughts	BIS-CD-583
SEROCKI / SANDSTROM: Trombone Concertos	BIS-CD-538
SORENSEN : Sterbende Garten / The Echoing Garden	8.224039
TCHAIKOVSKY: Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor / GRIEG: Piano Concerto in A minor	BIS-CD-375
WAGNER, R.: Opera Choruses	8.557714
WAGNER, R.: Tristan und Isolde	8.660152-54