Finnish conductor Leif Segerstam, with the legendary face of Santa Claus and who felt invested with a Christ-like musical mission, died Wednesday in Finland, as reported by his son, Jan, on the country’s public channel. Segerstam was 80 years old.
Leif Segerstam was an early fruit of the Finnish conducting school in the 1960s, a school to which Paavo Berglund, 15 years his senior, then drew the attention. He first worked in opera. From the mid-1970s he became increasingly active in the symphonic repertoire, being given the position of principal conductor of Finnish Radio.
It was an a priori very discreet position, that of conductor of the Rhineland-Palatinate Philharmonic Orchestra, in the second half of the 1980s, which brought him to the notice of music lovers. A passionate music discoverer (like Estonian Neeme Järvi), he records symphonic works that have disappeared from the French repertoire for the nascent label Naxos in a collection “Vive la France!” » (Caplet, Koechlin, Roger-Ducasse, Aubert, etc.).
In the same way, Segerstam is present to burn the first reference version of the Symphony by Hans Rott, who inspired Mahler so much. In the great repertoire, Segerstam could be “ we ” Or ” off » depending on his mood. His Sibelius complete recorded in Copenhagen for Chandos is very boring, whereas, a few years later, the one at Ondine, with the Helsinki Philharmonic, is fascinating, even referential.
Unpredictable character, who thought outside the box and could encourage musicians to scream in Scheherazade of Rimsky-Korsakov, Segerstam tirelessly composed symphonies. When he dies, the counter stops at more than 370! The conductor who wrote his first work at the age of 6 also liked peremptory declarations: “In the world of music, I have truths as precious as the teachings of Jesus,” he declared to a Finnish media last March in the occasion of his 80e birthday.